Mount Justice- April 3- 4:46 P.M-
The team and Batman were in the mission room, they were discussing the events of the last few months after Nightshade had been released from Belle Reve. Since then, whenever Batman and Robin were in the same room, the air turned tense and uncomfortable. They didn't know what had happened, but it looked serious.
"We're continuing with our investigation on the Light. With Dr. Lawrence and Dr. Magnus back, we now know what they are trying to build, we just don't know why," he said. "A few days ago, an informant let us know that a senator from New York has been working as a mole for the Light, he might have important information," Batman stood quietly in front of the computer until an alarm went off showing Two-Face and his goons taking over the New York City Courthouse and holding hostages, among them was the senator Batman had just talked about.
"Aqualad, Superboy and Zatanna. Go take care of that," he ordered them.
"What if Nightshade shows up?" asked Superboy getting ready to leave.
"Do what you see fit," he told them and watched them take off. He then turned around to look at Robin, and the rest of the team. "Robin, come with me. The rest, stand by in case they need back-up," said Batman leaving the others behind as he and Robin walked out of the room.
"In other words, hit the showers," said Artemis out loud.
New York City Courthouse- 5:29 P.M-
Nightshade landed on the building next to the Courthouse, she knew Two-Face was on the first floor, and that his henchmen, along with the hostages, were scattered all over the building. She couldn't go in through the front door, because the NYPD was outside trying to negotiate with Two-Face. She decided that the next best thing would be to enter through a window in the highest floor and then work her way down. Nightshade looked up, she was halfway through, but she still needed to climb the rest of the building and jump towards the Courthouse. She massaged her wrists and started climbing slowly making sure not to fall, or to look down at the ground for that matter.
"Guys, I really need a grappling hook. It looks fun when Batman uses it," she said getting to the balcony from where she could jump to the Courthouse, "and easy," she muttered under her breath. Nightshade took a few deep breaths before jumping to the other building; she barely managed to hold onto the ledge, her fingers trembled when she thought of the possibility of falling to the ground, so she made sure not to look down and pulled herself up.
"Quit whining, you are already there," said Lance, and looking at her though the security camera he leaned in while laughing. "I just realized that your legs are very short," he said watching her make her way around the building by walking on the ledge.
"I swear to god I will punch you so hard you will have to breathe through a tube," she told him finally finding a window she could climb through. The first thing she saw was a group of henchmen with three hostages sitting on the floor with their mouths and hands tied up. One of the goons heard the faint sound of something small rolling on the floor, he looked down to see a little metallic ball rolling up to his foot before bouncing off it.
"What the hell?" he asked leaning down to grab it, when the ball opened and smoke came out. The others turned around, and after seeing the smoke they started shooting into it. Nightshade made her way through the smoke disarming the goons and shooting them in the head with their own guns. One of them grabbed her from behind, he put his arm around her neck, but the girl took his arm and twisted it behind his back before cutting his throat with her knife. As the smoke dispersed, Nightshade leaned down to untie one of the hostages.
"Where's the senator?" she asked, the man simply stared at her terrified. He couldn't believe what a little girl had done to those men, but her glare made him get over his shock. "Talk!" she threatened him with her knife.
"I don't know, they simply took him away, we were separated and placed on different floors," he told her. Nightshade stood up and placed a hand over her ear as she walked away from them.
"Can you get tell me where the other hostages are?" she asked Lance.
"Are you really going to save them all?" he asked, "and are you seriously asking me that? I feel insulted," he asked typing something into his computer allowing him to access the security cameras inside the building. Nightshade didn't answer, she hadn't thought about that, actually she had thought very little during that fight. At this point her body moved on its own, and there was nothing she could do but go with it; the team would just have find a way to deal with it. "There's another group right under you," he told her.
With a trembling hand, the girl grabbed the handrail of the stairs and jumped down, making sure to knock out one of the goons in the process. This time there were five henchmen for seven hostages. The rest stood there for a while trying to process what had just happened until one of them started shooting at her. Dodging the bullets, Nightshade took out her own gun and started shooting back, she made her way towards them and kicking one of their guns she managed to disarm one of the henchmen, she took her gun and shot him in the head. Another one approached her from behind, but all Nightshade did was take out a knife and stab him on the chest, following that with a shot to the face.
She picked up the corpse and used him as a shield against the bullets, but ended up throwing him away when another henchman approached her. The man tried to move his dead partner off him only to be met by a bullet when he tried to stand up. With only two of them left, she finished it quickly by shooting them in the head. Nightshade checked her gun, it had only one bullet left and when she took out the other one, she realized she had left the magazine on top of the desk in the apartment. She banged her head against the wall and stared at the ground for a while; she took deep breaths to contain her anger and the burning desire to punch the wall. While she did that, she noticed the floor was completely covered in blood, and that even the hostages had blood drops all over their bodies, but Nightshade didn't seem to mind, she was too busy thinking about how stupid she was.
Lancewas rather pleased with the scene; he couldn't help but laugh at her as he played around with her magazine. Suddenly he put it down on the desk and sat straight in his chair, "Well, this is going to be fun. You have company," said Lance watching the three team members get in through a window on her floor. Nightshade sneaked into the shadows and watched the team make their way through the corpses on the floor trying not to step on anyone. Superboy and Zatanna had a grossed-out look on their faces while Aqualad didn't seem as surprised. The three of them looked down at the first floor where Two-Face sat in the middle of what the team assumed was the biggest group of hostages. They were forming some sort of shield around him, so it was hard to get close without hurting any of them, the situation was made even worse with the guards keeping a lookout for intruders. While looking around, one of them looked up and managed to catch a glimpse of the team, so he shot in their direction, but only managed to hit the ceiling.
"Hey! What are you doing you idiot?" Two-Face yelled at him after seeing that there was nothing there, "if you're going to be all jumpy, then maybe you shouldn't be here," he said pointing his gun at him. Two-Face took out his double-headed coin and flipped it in the air, after it landed in his hand, Two-Face flashed a smile. The guard shook his head rapidly and let go of the rifle, his eyes begging for mercy which was not granted to him as Two-Face shot him in the head.
Upstairs the team listened to what they were saying while being held down by Nightshade who had pulled them down right before the bullet could hit them. "Was Black Canary the one who taught you how to sneak around? If you keep doing that you're going to get killed, or worse get me killed," she whispered moving away from them. "Either way, what are you doing here?" she asked. The team got up from the ground and walked towards her still trying to avoid the blood.
"The Light is after that New York Senator," answered Aqualad pointing down at the group of hostages with Two-Face. They looked at her, her black and red suit covered the blood that had stained her suit and her long brown and black hair fell on most of her face until she pulled it back.
"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm here. Why are you?" she asked. "Do I need to remind you that this is my city?" The three of them remained silent; they should have known that she would still be going after the Light, after all for her it was personal.
"You went back to killing?" asked Superboy pointing at the bloody mess she had caused. Nightshade looked down to where he was pointing, but instead of saying anything she just shrugged and walked towards the balcony that looked down to the center of the building where Two-Face stood. She examined the room, nine guards were left since he had shot one of them, at least ten or twelve hostages and Two-Face in the middle of everything.
"Yeah well, I'm not part of your team anymore, so why should I follow your stupid rules?" she asked. "It also shuts her up," she said after a long pause in a barely audible tone.
"Nightfall?" asked Zatanna.
"Who else?" she answered with a sad smile plastered across her face. "Look, it's really not my problem what you think of me and right now I'm kind of busy trying to save the senator's ass. So, either help or get the hell out, because this is going to get messy," she said right before jumping down to the first floor and landing on top of a guard. One down, eight more to go, she thought getting ready to face the other one when Two-Face shot in her direction. "You missed," she said turning to look at him.
"This is rather disappointing," he said aiming at her.
"I could say the same. Your goons didn't really put up a fight," said Nightshade raising her hands in the air in an effort to show him she was unarmed. Two-Face flashed a smile with half of his face while the other remained the same burnt half. Disgusting, thought Nightshade as she saw more guards coming out from the corner of her eye.
"You shouldn't have come alone, this is the big leagues kid, and you are definitely not Batman," he told her as the guards formed a circle around her, all of them pointing their rifles at her.
"If you were expecting Batman, you should have stayed in Gotham," she told him, "and who said I was alone?" she asked right before Superboy landed behind her creating a wave that took down some of Two-Face's goons. Right before the others could shoot, Zatanna used a spell to force a small group of henchmen to the floor, and then another one that pushed them up against the wall. Finally, Aqualad landed next to her and the both of them started taking out the rest. Nightshade's first instinct was to reach for her guns, but remembering that she only had one bullet left she took out her knives, and started throwing them at their vital points, killing the goons instead of just maiming them like the rest of the team.
"Nightshade!" yelled Aqualad after he saw what she was doing.
"I. Don't. Care," she said looking at him before dodging a punch to the face and returning it with a punch to the stomach that took the goon down. Aqualad took out his water bearers forming hammers with them and hitting them in the head to knock them down faster. Superboy was making man-shaped holes in the walls of the building as they kept attacking him, one of them jumped at him from the back and tried to choke him, but he grabbed the man and threw him over his head.
Superboy turned around and saw Nightshade jumping off the wall and bouncing on the chest of another goon. After landing on the ground, the girl took one of the goons and broke his arm forcing him to drop the knife to the ground along with him. She lifted her face to see how the others were doing, and that's when she saw that one of Two-Face henchmen was aiming his gun at Aqualad. "Oh come on," she said taking out her gun and using her last bullet to shoot the goon right in the head.
"What are you doing?" he asked a bit infuriated.
"Shut up, I just saved your ass," she told him putting the gun away resuming her fight. Nightshade and the team were doing alright until Two-Face shot one of his goons instead of shooting at Zatanna.
"It's very hard to get useful idiots nowadays," he said still holding his gun out. You could see the anger in his face, his brows were arched and the half of his mouth that could move had turned into a frown. Nightshade found it amusing how horrible his face looked when both sides matched in terms of expression. "Now tell me, who should I shoot first?" he asked looking down at the hostage group. He took out his coin and flipped it one more time, after it landed, he picked up the senator Nightshade was trying to rescue. "You will have to do," he said as a terrified expression grew on the senator's face and he started trembling and crying.
After seeing this Nightshade let go of one of the guards and started walking towards Two-Face. She took out her sword, but stopped walking when she saw a shadow moving in the back of the room, which was at around the same time Two-Face pressed the gun harder against the senator's head. The other three stood still, they couldn't risk his life, and by the look Two-Face had, he wouldn't hesitate to shoot. The atmosphere in the room had turned heavy, Nightshade stood a few feet away from Two-Face while the team stood a few feet behind her, but no one was moving a muscle. The hostages were trembling, and some started to cry loudly. Annoyed, Nightshade took out a gun.
"Go ahead," she said aiming at him. At this point, the team was as surprised as Two-Face, apparently pulling out a gun in this kind of situation was not normal. It took him a while to recover, but he never lowered his gun or loosened his grip.
"What are you doing?" asked Superboy getting ready to go after Nightshade when they spotted Robin standing on the balcony, and somehow, they were sure Nightshade had seen him too. Unfortunately for Lance, that was a blind spot for the security cameras, so he didn't know about the presence of the Boy Wonder, and she couldn't tell him.
"Are you crazy? Nightshade you don't have bullets," Lance warned her while looking at the screen. Of course she knew that, even if she did have bullets, there was no way she could shoot Two-Face without killing at least one hostage, but all she needed was for him to believe she could.
"You're bluffing," he said. Nightshade smiled pulling down the hammer of the gun.
"Am I?" she asked steadying her grip on the gun as her hand started to shake. She couldn't let him see through her bluff since she was trying to get him to move or loosen up his grip so Robin could take him out. Nightshade moved as if she was going to shoot him, pressuring Two-Face into letting go of the senator and shoot at them. As soon as he did that, Robin came swinging down and hit him on the side forcing him to the ground.
"Dude seriously, so not whelmed," said Robin. At the same time, Nightshade put up a fire barrier around her that melted the bullet
"You have no bullets left, do you?" asked Robin, the room went silent and they all, including Two-Face, turned to look at the girl. Nightshade let out a small laugh and unloaded the gun letting the empty magazine fall to the ground.
"Busted," she said looking at Two-Face. If he knew that, then that meant that Robin had been inside the building for quite some time. "I don't want to ask how you knew that because it think I know the answer," she told him, and while the team focused their attention on them, Two-Face took out his coin and flipped it. When the coin landed on the burnt head, he took out his gun and shot aiming at Nightshade. Luckily for them, the girl noticed and once again melted the bullet.
Two-face laughed while Superboy walked closer and grabbed the gun barrel twisting it so that he couldn't use it. "Oh come on, that is just not fair," said Two-Face right before Superboy grabbed his collar and pulled him up. Trying not to choke with his own saliva while swallowing, Two-Face took out his coin again, "How about we flip. Heads you let me go, tails you can punch me as hard as you want," he said getting ready to flip it when Robin cut into the conversation.
"Just punch him, it's a double-headed coin," said Robin. Superboy showed Two-Face his teeth, like a dog right before he was going to attack. Two-Face fell unconscious to the ground with his bad side looking up. The team turned around to look for Nightshade only to find out that neither she nor the senator were there anymore.
Nightshade had dragged him out the back, she turned the corner of the alley and stopped right in front. "Here," she said pushing the senator towards the darkened corner. "You have five minutes before I have to take him to Mayor Hall." Batman came out of the shadows and took the senator with him only to return him a few minutes later, he was more than a little shook up when he came back out and cowered behind Nightshade.
"Don't forget to report to me next week," he told her, turning his back on her and walking away. Nightshade watched him disappear among the shadows and once she lost sight of him, she took the senator and placed him on the back of her bike that she rode to Mayor Hall's house.
New York City, Mayor Hall's house- 10:54 P.M-
Nightshade kicked the door open and marched around the duplex apartment dragging the senator behind her. "Arthur Hall!" she yelled trying to find him. Finally, he stepped out of his office; a man in his mid-forties, his black hair was now turning white and his once friendly face had been replaced by a stern look as he watched Nightshade drop the senator in front of him. The man lived alone in a huge apartment that was just a couple blocks away from hers, so she had decided to drop by and collect the money personally. "There you have him, partially unharmed," she said. Both men stared at her for a while, before the Mayor turned around to look for a white envelope full of money that sat next to a photo of his days in the NYPD. Nightshade took it and started putting the money away.
"I can't believe you are doing business with this people," said the senator, finally gaining some composure. Arthur Hall looked down at him.
"I thought you wanted to get out alive," he said turning back around to look at the girl. "She was your best option. Either way, she does more good than harm, thought exceptions exist," he said now talking to her about the incident with Poison Ivy.
Nightshade raised her gaze to meet his, "no one died that time, you should be grateful," she told him getting ready to leave.
"I was, that's why I paid you," he said right before his front door was slammed shut.
"How long has this been going on?" asked the senator getting up from the ground. The old man looked at him, his eyes showed a combination of regret and relief. He was eager to share the secret with someone else, and that someone just happened to be him.
"A year, give or take," he said, "when there's something that might get out of hand we call her and then drop the money off somewhere. She usually doesn't come personally," he said lighting up a cigar.
"But she's just a kid. Do you even know who she is?" he asked.
"No idea, and I don't want to know either," he said. The senator's puzzled look told him that he didn't understand why, but he got to say what he wanted to say and that was all that mattered.
Outside, Nightshade stood on the rooftop counting her money. Ever since she had gotten to New York, the Mayor had been paying her to keep things under control, and every time he would pay her a considerable amount of money. This time was no exception.