ION
About a half hour later, the rooftop had become a scene of police tape, chaotic order, UTPD, paramedics, CSI, FBI (as we would call them, on Earth 0 they're generally called DBI, Dimensional Bureau of Investigation), and Unipol (on most earths, generally known as Interpol).
This had been a big case.
Well, it hadn't been a case for a while.
When Dick had gone missing, Earth 0 had been thrown into chaos of freaking out and panic. Barbara had spent hours fighting to take the case, but ultimately, the council had decided it was too... personal for her to be working on. Screw that, she'd told herself. Dick gone missing was personal to everyone.
She wasn't going to just sit back, though. So without warrant and in secret, she'd pursued the case. Of course, one thing led to another and she'd found her isolia wasn't the only one missing. So was Wally, as well as Jason, Dick's breive*1. Others had gone missing as well, so Barbara had decided to let some of the old gang in on her secret*2.
As usual, Roy had been amazing in keeping it quiet and covering for her. The DBI agent was here now, raising his eyebrow at his younger self, who was staring at him in confusion.
"Who're you?" Roy from Earth 16.1 asked.
"Your evil twin. Now, I'm going to need to ask you some questions, kid. You gonna' cooperate?" he was having fun with this, Barbara could tell.
Barbara laughed at the look on mini-Roy's face, walking up to them quietly. "Roy." both Roys turned to her. "Uh... Earth 0 Roy." she smirked.
"What?" he answered, tapping his pen to his notebook.
Barbara slowly lowered her head. "We need to finish up here. R-Roy..." her eyes squinted shut as her demeanor made a drastic turn. Roy put a hand on her shoulder, seemingly reading her mind.
"He's not with us yet, is he?"
When she didn't answer, the agent continued. "Its going to be ok, Babs. We'll find Dick and bring him home. We won't let Amulon hurt him. Hurt you. Not again."
"But that's just it." She whispered, hugging him and letting her friend rock her. On Earth 0, close relationships between different genders while "married" to another was normal. Everyone on Earth 0 knew who they loved and nothing could change that, nothing could wave the undying devotion for each other. Roy wouldn't cheat on Jade, and Barbara wouldn't cheat on Dick if their lives depended on it. "He has. And... and he's got Dick. Y-you know what happens if he hurts him, right?"
She raised her brown eyes to Roy's as he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Look. Dick won't die; he's good at that. We'll-"
"ROY!" she yelled. "Look at him!" She jerked her hand towards the little boy being checked out by the paramdics, making sure no ill-effects came by the cause of dimension hopping. "You know what will happen to him if our Dick so much as gets a scratch?!"
The man sighed. "Barbara-"
"No!" she took his hand, ripping back his sleeve and slashing his wrist with a knife. The response was immediate. He screamed in surprise and pain. But that's not what her point was- it was the younger Roy beside him having the same reaction that was so foundational.
"WHAT THE HECK?" the youth yelled, looking at the blood slinking down his hand. He glanced at older Roy. "What the heck?!"
Roy bit his lip, his patience wearing thin as his nice white shirt earned a red haze. "Barbara, look, I'm sorry. But you can't go around cutting people with knives."
"UGH!" She yelled, along with sudden scream of a child.
Terry was arguing with Spiderdope again.
Ok, it was less arguing and more debating, and less debating and more BUUUURN!s directed at the arachnid-themed kid.
Ok, so they were about the same age.
At first they'd been to stunned to speak. Some UTPD and CSI had arrived, setting up police-tape. The strange thing wasn't the police tape, but the effect it seemed to have. The second the area was completely closed off by it, the outside world has frozen in time. Only things moving were the people inside the squared-off barrier.
This had caused them to be quiet for a while. Then the paramedics arrived, and of course, all the cute ones immediately went for Dick, Jason, and Cass. Why did little kids have to be so adorable?! But of course, there was one more pretty brunette. Terry had totally won. He was just that charming.
But then, as fate put it, she wasn't single. Apparently she had some isolia, which was like her husband or something.
Spiderman had had a kick out of that.
They had continued to compete, Terry repeatedly (in his opinion) winning against Peter. Yes, he was that good. He already knew his name. All Spiderman knew about him was he was freakishly awesome.
"So, have you ever fought, I dunno, a giant Octopus-man? I call 'im Doc Oc. He's like my nemesis, sorta. Yeah, I've got a nemesis." Spiderman said, trying to seem nonchalant. Terry was far from fooled.
With perfect acting, he still made his outwardly appearance utterly unaware Spiderman was trying to outdo and surpass him.
"Nah, I don't have any real big nemesis. I mean, the Joker Gang is a real pain, but for the most part I let Batman take care of that. I just travel the world protecting civilians and going on top-secret classified missions. I was in the Amazon hunting down a man by the name of Al'rian O'gera before I came. Al'rian illegally breeds, eats, and sells rare and endangered animals, as well as takes liberal part in human trafficking of several types. My partner for the mission was Kayda, that's all I can give you on her. I saved from him about two months ago. The case was nearly half done when I'd had to break the mission off to save my siblings here. I'll finish it when I get back."
Spiderman was kinda left speechless. "Uh... Doc Oc has kidnapped me? Because, I'm like, his obsession."
"That's nice. I don't get kidnapped. I'm too skilled. Plus, I stay in the shadows more. You're lucky, most people have never even heard of me. But you get to talk to me. That's not arrogance, by the way. It's just the truth. Although, it can be a pain proving I'm a real hero sometimes. My resume is pretty impressive, but, unfortunately, it's also classified."
Spiderman was preparing a retort when a scream ripped through the air.
Terry's older brother instincts went into overdrive when he recognized it as Dick's, disappearing from beside Spideridiot to materialize by his brother. "What are you doing to him?!" he roared when he saw what was happening.
The woman was holding his brother's pale arm as knife-like hacks of slashes peeled into his arm, blood everywhere as it leaked over the doctor's gloved hands. She looked at him, a strand of dark brown, almost black hair falling in her gray-brown expresso-colored eyes. "Nothing! It's not me!" she protested crossly.
Dick quickly gained control of himself after the initial shock of being cut by a nonexistent knife, staring down with wide eyes at his arm as it was carved.
A few others ran over to see the problem, Dick whimpering gently as he whispered: "Please make it stop. Please. It hurts. Please make it stop."
"It's ok, honey. It'll all be ok soon. It will stop." the doctor soothed, waving off another paramedic to retrieve something.
Terry sat on the cot, putting one of his huge hands across his brother's shoulders. They were so big compared to Dick's little frame that he could set his palm on one shoulder and wrap his fingers around the back of his neck to rest them on the other. "Dicky, Dicky look at me."
Dick raised his head shakily, surprisingly calm for being carved by an unknown assailant with no idea when it would stop, or if it even would.
"We'll figure it out. Now tell me, what've you been doing here with Spiderkid the past while?"
"Spiderman." Dick corrected.
"Whatever. What've you been doing?"
As Terry comforted Dick, Barbara felt her blood boiling.
She knew what was going on.
Her Dick was being hurt, meaning every Dick, on every world, was being hurt. Now, it wasn't easy to hurt someone from Earth 0, and it was nearly impossible to kill them. It was rare that the injuries would travel to doppelgangers unless certain weapons were used. Apparently, Amulon had one of them.
She wanted to throttle the man, the anomaly. Amulon was, after all, considered such. A man born between universes and dimensions with no Earth 0 counterpart. Regardless, she wanted to crush until she felt his windpipe deflate in on itself.
It lasted about an hour before the little boy could no longer take it, simply whimpering while curled in his brother's lap. His whole arm was covered in blood, and when his tiny jawline began to bleed, Barbara was really, really ready to hurt someone. Particularly Amulon. The doctors sedated him, giving him numbing agents to sooth the burning pain.
At two hours, it finally stopped.
As soon as it had, the paramedics immediately took of his shirt, cleaning the now delirious (thanks to sedation) child thoroughly, Barbara keeping a watchful vigil. When they were done, and before they bandaged him up, she pushed them away, looking at the cuts. As she expected, the terrible act was not just for the "fun" of it.
Written across him were words.
Je criem. Lee isolia, lee lief, je hands.
It continued.
Translated, it said:
"I'm coming. Your isolia, your life, is in my hands. None of your precious little Raicad's will be safe. This is a message to you, Baliana. This isn't the end of the story. Although all the little ones have been saved, although your precious UTPD is cleaning up the mess, even though everything seems fine... I still got an ace up my sleeve. One I'm going to draw out until I cut his life of forever, to watch you in pain. Or perhaps, I'll keep him. As my trophy. Just imagine, every Dick in existence, bearing these words on themselves as I scratch them in. Just imagine, my knife pressing into your isolia's face, arms, chest as I write this. Just imagine, Baliana. Remember, until you're dead, our story isn't over."
*1 breive (brave) Earth 0's equivalent of "brother." In Earth 0, no one is connected by blood. Everyone is connected simply by spirit. So, in literal translation, "soul-brother" or "spirit-brother"
*2 isolia (iss-ō-lee-uh) I already kinda told it, but it means spouse/mate/romantic partner, anything like that. Literally translated: "soulmate" or "spirit-mate." Generally just soulmate.
AAAAAnnnd... I finished the story!
Booyah!
Well, all I've left is an epilogue. Now, should I do it this week sometime, or Monday? Hmm... we'll see. Ok, ok, I get it. I'll probably make a sequel to this, as an epilogue will not even attempt to finish this up. But not anytime soon. Right now I'm going to focus on "Would You Have Stayed?" (if anyone wants to help me with the title... I beg of you...). I'm really excited about that story, so go ahead and check it out (please?)!
Now! For my prize goes to... Mikekit! Yes, that happened. What is the prize? Well, I'll tell you! You get the dedication! And y'know, I'm happy to say I get to say this with meaning (I mean seriously, you're awesome). So without further ado...
I'd like to dedicate this story to Mikekit, not just because you reviewed, but because you've been an awesome friend throughout all my other stories and an excellent (and thankfully, very patient) writer! This story goes to you!
Now, I'd like to say, dedications mean a lot to me. If someone dedicated a story to me, I'd be having the feeeels. So that was a pretty awesome prize, in my opinion. But really, since it was Mikekit, it was really less of a prize and more of a dedication. I mean honestly, they're an awesome friend. :D
But, I would like to thank all you guys sooooooo much! You've been a truly awesome support and I hope you stick with me throughout my other crazy stories! :D Thank you, thank you, thank you! Please review/fave, as I WILL be getting the epilogue out soon.
Love you guys so much,
X~~~WhenUniversesCollide~~~X
RESPONSES:
MusicLyric: That, is actually a pretty awesome idea. Perhaps I'll make something like that. Unfortunately, for now, here we are! Oh, and don't worry. You'll see Daddy!Bats in the epilogue. ;D
grayson4life: I told you in a PM! Thanks for reviewing! It means a lot!
Weird Inhuman: *scuffles feet with a blush* I dunno what ta say... thank you so much! That's all I can say! That really means a lot to me! Thanks so, so much!
Doorkeeper: Phew! I was getting panicked I'd never be able to show my face on FF again after this story! Glad it wasn't a total fail! Thanks!
I'z Nightwing: NOT CHOPPED LIVER! I sorry! Oh, and the little bit more of the fighting of Terry vs. Spiderman was for you! (And everyone else who liked it, but you made me decide: hey, fine, I'll give you a little more! :D)
Rocker on: I SAY BATNESS WIIIINS! Bats are paranoid. Even if they don't get their hunches (which are always right) they would be prepared for anything. Superman go evil? BLAMO! KRYPTONITE RING! Darkseid comes to the earth? WAZZOUH! Superman, go beat him up! (Yes, there's one for if they can't get Supes to do their dirty work) interdimensional travelers? PA-DING! They're ready! Plus, Terry'd win any day in the looks department (*cough* Spidey's a nerd and looks like it stereotypically *cough*).
I think how it works is everyone who has ever existed lives on Earth 0, every sentient or even slightly sentient being. Meaning, if this existed, both you and I would have counterparts on Earth 0. Since the possibilities for worlds are endless, then assuredly there would be endless alterations of worlds with both Peter Parker and Dick Grayson *shudders* I mean, I love those two, but together? THE WORLD WOULD BE CRAZY! Ok, never mind, I'd fit right in! XD
Oh, don't worry, my idea came from your suggestion! It would still be my profile pic if it weren't for it... I actually made it right before I went to watch Spiderman II. I don't know why people say they were so bad. I liked it.
I'm so glad you want to be IN the story! That means you like it! Thanks so much for being a great reviewer! Everytime I post a chapter I'm like: It's ok, don't feel nervous, both Weird Inhuman and Rocker on ALWAYS review. Don't worry. You'll know their thoughts. Don't get me wrong, the rest of you reviewers and followers and stuff are AWESOME too, I just always know these two will ALWAYS review! It's quite nice!
Thanks! I hope you'll follow my new story, I'm putting a lot of effort into it! Keep rocking on! (yes. I just stole that. MUAHAHAHAHA!)
Mikekit: Thanks! I think I've improved quite a but, and don't plan on stopping! I've seen you improve as well *Pops up* Hey everyone! Mikekit has some awesome stories! Check 'em out! Ok, I'm good now. XD I will take your input carefully in the future! Thanks!
(ps, almost forgot. I told a friend I'd suggest a story I'm helping her write. The storyline is really good! I start betaing at chapter fine, so all the mistakes she accidentally missed should be taken care of! ;) Please take a look, if you can! It's called: Something to die for -by CrazyIsCreativeWriting-)
Just a final call out! Thanks so, so much, everyone!