Chapter 34: Birds of Prey
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any DC characters or logos.
Nightwing tore through the twilight as he leapt from one building to another. It had been a long journey, but he was so close to his goal. Leaping forward like a bird taking flight, the young hero opened the folds of his cape, floating through the skies of Gotham City with his glider open.
A shadow of a smile etched its way onto his face as he caught sight of his car. It was a tricked out machine designed by Cyborg, but the exterior appeared to be relatively normal. His old friend had been king enough to let him borrow a car from the garage in Titans Tower, and he was grateful from that. It would be much easier to get to Metropolis if he had a ride.
At the moment, it really didn't matter, because the young vigilante had more important things on his mind to worry about, and he was looking forward to finding out some useful information on the case. Focused on his thoughts, he did not see the missiles flying toward him from the distance.
Catching sight of the deadly projectiles, Nightwing broke out of his flight pattern, disrupting the glider's action drastically. The sudden change in motion had made it difficult to maintain altitude. Losing control of it, the young hero fell sideways onto the roof of a nearby building, landing in a crumpled heap.
Shaking off the pain of the accident, the young hero saw another attack coming in his direction. Without even getting up, he rolled sideways to avoid the laser fire that had blasted the area where his head been moments earlier. Leaping to his feet, he struck a fighting stance, searching the skies frantically for any sign of his attacker.
"Over here…" a voice replied in a cocky tone.
Spinning around frantically, he tossed his birdarangs in the direction of the voice. While the small projectiles would have hit an ordinary target, they bounced helpless off of the barrier surrounding his opponent.
Warp gave him a cocky grin as he floated downwards, his rockets retracting as he landed a few yards away from Nightwing. "Greetings… it was been awhile."
"What do you want… did you come to finish me?" Nightwing scowled in an angry manner, taking out two more birdarangs as he glared at the futuristic villain. "I'll take you on right now if that's what you want."
The villain let out a hearty laugh, looking thoroughly amused by the young hero's heated reaction. "What's so funny?" Nightwing asked, taking a few steps backwards in case his opponent tried something.
His laughter died as he heard Nightwing's reply. "Quite the violent little man you have become…"
Reaching into his pocket, the villain withdrew a small steel ball, which he held out in front of himself. Nightwing eyed the small device with suspicion, preparing to disarm his opponent with a birdarang if the item was a weapon. To his surprise, his adversary did not appear as if he was going to use it as a weapon.
"I have a message for you…" Warp replied, as if he had read the young hero's mind. "I am sure that you will find it in your best interest to listen."
Ignoring Nightwing's obvious annoyance, the futuristic villain pressed the button the surface of the device. In a matter of seconds, the orb split apart. The light from the sphere shifted and twisted, forming the image of a human being… Slade. After a few moments, the small image in Warp's hand began to speak.
"Greetings, my old friend. If you are watching this then it means that my associate was able to deliver the message safely. I doubt that you are pleased to see me, but I have a proposition for you… I hear that you have been searching for me, and I must commend you on your efforts. Nevertheless, I doubt that you will find anything significant in helping you to thwart me, so here we stand at the crossroads of fate."
Nightwing scowled in annoyance. Slade was always the type to toy around with his opponent before getting to the point, which was another thing that he hated about the masked villain.
"If you truly are determined to kill me, then come to the rooftop of Gotham Mall at midnight tonight, but remember… no police, no friends, no Justice League. If violate any one of these conditions, I promise you that you will deeply regret it. Your friend… what was her name? Starfire? Let's just say that she's not doing so well at the moment. I doubt the league even knows that she's gone…"
With these last words, the masked villain's holographic form vanished into the orb.
"Are we clear?" Warp asked putting the device away.
The young vigilante nodded in response as the villain disappeared through a vortex. He wasn't sure if Slade was telling the truth or not about Starfire, but there was only one way to find out. Reaching into his utility belt, Nightwing pulled out his Justice League communicator.
"Nightwing to Watchtower… do you read me?"
Static erupted from the speaker, but after a few moments, the Martian's voice came through. "This is the Watchtower… how can we be of assistance?"
"I would like to report that there is a lead that I am currently unable to follow on the case of the Tri-gems."
"Very well then… elaborate." The Martian ordered.
"I believe that the Meta Brawl is taking place in Metropolis tonight, and I have a feeling that Roulette will be involved. If we can capture her, then we might get a lead on the Legion of Doom."
"Very well… is there anything else that you would like to report."
"I would like to ask if Starfire is on board the space station right now?" he asked, hiding the uncertainty that he felt.
"The record say that she was sent out on a mission earlier today. It was a relatively simple crowd control job, but she has not yet reported back to us. We have heard nothing from her for several hours…"
Nightwing's eyes widened in anger as he tried to take in this new piece of information. It felt as if a lump had formed in his throat, but it was a few moments before he spoke again. "Have you tried to contact her?"
"We have tried to establish contact with her, but were unable to do so… we fear that her communicator may have been disabled for some reason, but the data is insufficient for us to conclude that anything has happened to her."
Nightwing remained silent for a few minutes… his mind assessing the situation.
"Are you still there?" a voice came from his communicator.
"Yeah… over and out." He said, switching of the device. Without another word, he headed for the Gotham Mall to wait for Slade. He would settle this personally.
WITH RAVEN
It may have been another boring day aboard the Watchtower, but the atmosphere was much more tense than usual. All of the heroes were worried about what would happen next, and although her powers had been severely weakened, her sense of perception was as sharp as ever.
Having spent her entire life holding in her emotions, Raven was an expert when it came time to sensing the feelings of others, and even a normal person could probably see how concerned some of the heroes were. She could feel a strong sense of unrest in the air that seemed to engulf everyone. Not a single person was unaware of the current situation, and even the always-cheerful Flash did not seem to be quite himself. She had run into the red speedster three times today, and not once did he crack a joke. Even Batman who had always had a reputation for maintaining his serious composure was acting more grim and cynical than usual.
Despite the unrest aboard the Space Station, she really couldn't blame them for the way they felt. The grievous news concerning Slade's Secret Society had become even more terrifying, considering that he had recruited one of the world's most dangerous magicians to help him with his plans. If this weren't enough, she was beginning to go through some personal issues that had complicated the situation even further.
Raven had always been the strong, silent type, but now she was experiencing more emotional slips than she had ever had before. Without her dark soul looming inhabiting her body like a malevolent spirit, she could feel her emotionless façade slipping away as if a great strain had been lifted. Needless to say, she wasn't used to this feeling at all, and to be honest, she wasn't exactly sure if she was happy with the idea or not.
She had always seen herself as an independent person, but now she was beginning to wonder what this change would do to her personality. For the next few moments, Raven imagined herself wearing a goofy grin on her face with a pink cloak over her shoulders, laughing at Beast Boy's jokes and speaking to her friends in a flamboyant and jubilant manner. She retched at the thought, quickly pushing the idea out of her head. At the moment, she would rather eat Beast Boy's nasty tofu cakes than end up like that.
Shaking her head in annoyance, her thoughts began to return to the current situation. Since she no longer her emotionally driven powers to deal with, she could no longer feel that forbidding presence within her body attempting to unleash her demonic energy on everything and everyone around her. For the first time in her life, she felt like her body was truly her own, but to a person who had always lived in fear of her own power, nothing could be stranger.
Outwardly expressing her emotions on a more regular basis was something new to her, but Doctor Fate had personally encouraged her to try while she was free from her dark inhibitions. She had actually been outwardly pleasant over the last couple of days, and had even caught herself attempting to make a joke when she ate lunch with Beast Boy the previous day. While even she knew that the actual line she said was not overly amusing, her old friend seemed to appreciate her feeble attempt, and had given her a nervous laugh. Thinking back to the situation, his awkward response was probably more out of surprise than humor. It seemed that he had found the fact that she had tried her hand at comedy to be somewhat disturbing, considering that she used to scold him for his immaturity when they were Teen Titans.
Despite the interesting new prospect that had been revealed, the current scenario continued to plague her thoughts, whether she was directly considering the danger or not. Another emotion that was new to her was the insipient sense of panic that constantly saturated her mind. With Slade so close to achieving his twisted goal, and the Justice League unable to find any clues on the latter, everyone aboard the Watchtower was beginning to worry.
What made things even worse was the fact that she had been taken off of the active roster, and was not allowed to go out on missions to personally investigate the situation herself. Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg were all out in the field, but they hadn't been any more successful than the other heroes on the case, and no one had any communications with Nightwing recently. Leave it to him to disappear without a trace when he was needed.
Her thoughts immediately returned to her own predicament again. She knew that her temporary suspension from missions was for her own safety, but the waves of pain that she had felt in her body had stopped, and she was confident that she return to the field. Perhaps her soul had recovered from the trauma of losing a piece of itself and was starting to adjust to the new conditions.
Needless to say, she was anxious to return from her daily duties so that she could speak to Doctor Fate. If she received his approval, she would be allowed to rejoin her friends in the field, and begin finding some answers.
The whole Watchtower duty thing really wasn't a very convincing ruse to begin with. The Martian had assigned her to patrol the rooms where the other heroes trained, but she hadn't been fooled. She had a feeling that Doctor Fate had pulled some strings so that she would have some extra time to train while putting in some working hours at the same time. She had been sitting on one of the mats, attempting to levitate objects using mystic energy. While she was able to perform the simple spell, the use of mystic energy was much different from the use of chaos magic, and she found that it required slightly more concentration than her normal powers did.
Although not as instinctive as her demon magic was, she found that performing mystic spells was much easier than it was before. Before the incident with Morgaine Le Fey, Raven was forced to convert her chaos magic into mystic energy before performing different types of spells. Now she no longer had to worry about that. Having been purged of demonic impurity, her magical aura was much more compatible with Doctor Fate's magic.
She smiled inwardly as a fierce determination entered her body. It filled the void in her soul where her dark spirit had once resided, and gave her the confidence. Pushing herself off of the floor, Raven decided that she was going to head for the main control room to request an early reprieve from Watchtower duty. While she dreaded her inevitable conversation with the stubborn Martian, there was no way that she was spending the rest of the day in here when all of her friends had been called out for the investigation. There were so many things that she could be doing to help the investigation of the Legion of Doom, and she wanted to stop them more than anyone at the moment. The young sorceress took a few steps towards the door, but a loud thumping noise behind her caught her attention. Glancing backwards, the young sorceress made a 180-degree turn to get a better look at the sight going on in the sparring ring.
"Take this blondie!" Huntress cried, aiming a kick at her opponent's head.
Black Canary sidestepped the powerful blow, seizing her opponent by the leg, and tossing her across the ring. Huntress flew backwards onto the floor, her face slightly bruised as she glared up at her opponent. Needless to say, the dark-haired woman was not happy about the outcome of the round.
"Give up yet…" the blonde replied mockingly, following up the statement with a confident smirk.
Huntress shook her head in a defiant manner, struggling to her feet as she brushed off her costume. Reaching behind her back, she unbuttoned her cape, throwing it onto the ground along with her utility belt. Shaking off the waves of pain that pulsed through her head, she grinned back at her worthy opponent. "Best three out of five." She said, motioning forward with her hands.
Her opponent tossed her jacket onto the ground, balling her hands into fists as she struck a fighting stance. "Fine… but I don't see why you bother."
"Don't get cocky. I've taken out birds a heel of a lot bigger than you." She retaliated. Black Canary nodded in response as she flipped backwards, landing on her feet a few yards away. The two women exchanged competitive glares as they began to circle around the ring from opposite sides, preparing to continue the match.
Raven watched in interest as the two females readied themselves for the next round, but the battle was interrupted by a familiar voice on the intercom. "Black Canary and Raven, please report to the main control room… that is all." The Martian's voice echoed throughout the Space Station.
The young sorceress held her arms out in a wide position, disappearing in a flash of light, causing the sign of the Egyptian Ankh to appear for a few seconds in the spot where her body had vanished. Seconds later, she reappeared a few yards away from the Martian.
The towering form of J'onn J'onzz turned to greet her, his expression as serious as ever. She gave him a small nod, quickly acknowledging the alien. While he said nothing for a few seconds, she could tell that he was surveying her through those crimson, pupil-less eyes. He was probably curious about what happened to her, and was taking the opportunity to observe her. After a few awkward moments, the Martian broke the silence that had formed between them.
"I'm sure that you are wondering why I have ordered you here." He asked, his gaze meeting hers for a few seconds.
"I am…" Raven returned his eye contact as she spoke.
The Martian turned his back to her as he headed back towards the control panel. Reached over to the clipboard on the workspace, he began flipping through pages in a rapid manner. After a few moments, he tore a form from the stack and handed it to her. "Due to your early recovery, you have been freed of all previous precautionary activities."
The blue-clad sorceress took the form from the alien's grip, her own eyes scanning it for a few seconds before answering. "I see…" Looking at the bottom of the page, she could clearly see Doctor Fate's signature.
The alien nodded quickly, taking the paper from her and placing it back into the pile as he attempted to straighten out the mess. After organizing the countless forms on the desk he shifted his attention back towards Raven. "As you probably understand, this means that you are free to continue your duties in the field. You were called here because you have been given a mission concerning the current situation, and we believe that you can do it better than anyone else."
Raven nodded in response as she waited for him to elaborate on the subject, but they were interrupted before the Martian could continue their conversation.
The doors to the control room slid open with a metallic clang as two more people entered the main control room. Black Canary stepped forward to join them, followed closely by Huntress. The two women wore matching irritated expressions, as if the Martian's call to action had just interrupted something important.
The Martian Manhunter ignored their apparent distaste, his expression remaining indifferent for the most part. "Do you have authorization to be here?" he asked as his gaze shifted to the dark-haired super hero.
"Yeah… Q decided that he wanted some company so he called me." A distasteful expression lit her features as she spoke to the alien. Apparently she hadn't been on particularly good terms with the Martian since she joined to league, and things had only worsened after he expelled her from the organization.
"You are no longer a member of this organization, and as such you are no longer permitted to come and go as you please." He said, casting an indifferent expression towards her.
"I do better on my own anyway." Huntress nodded in exasperation, shooting him a look that clearly wished him nothing but misery, as she turned around and continued towards the door. Raven exchanged odd expressions with Black Canary as the end of Huntress's cape disappeared through the doorway, the exit sliding shut behind her as she entered the hallway.
Green Arrow cocked an eyebrow from across the room as he approached his girlfriend. "What's wrong with her?" he asked, glancing towards the doorway as he spoke.
"Don't really have a clue." Black Canary replied, shaking her head in emphasis. She looked relatively indifferent to the situation. "Too bad we didn't get to finish our match. I swear that I would've kicker her ass from Gotham City to San Francisco if I hadn't been called here." She replied with a competitive smile.
"Easy there pretty bird." The masked archer replied, pulling her a little bit closer to him as he spoke. J'onn J'onzz shook his head in a disapproving manner, but said nothing as he turned a blind eye towards the couple. He had found love with a middle-aged woman in China, and as far as he was concerned, it was a natural thing. The way he went home to her after work reminded him of his family on Mars all those years ago.
Raven's reaction was similar the Martian's, as she had no desire to watch the love fest herself. While people would not usually call her heartless, she was still quite far from being the romantic type. Not that there were many boys who would even bother to look at her when she wasn't using her concealment spell. It wasn't really ugly, but her sense of style scared most people, and the pale color of her skin was considered unnatural by most people. The only boy who had ever showed her any large amount of interest was actually a dark dragon in disguise that was using her to free himself.
As the pair separated, Green Arrow glanced back at her before leaving them to their business. It wasn't very professional, but who really cared. With another metallic clang, he too had disappeared through the doorway. Now that the distraction had passed, they could finally get down to business.
"I have an important mission concerning the current situation with the Secret Society." He replied, turning towards the two heroes standing across the room.
"Were you able to find some leads?" Raven asked.
"Yes… Nightwing sent us a transmission that I believe you will find quite interesting. He believes that Roulette may know where we can locate Deathstroke's base of operations, and he has recently gone to Metropolis to attend the Meta Brawl in hopes of capturing her for questioning."
Black Canary nodded in understanding, her fists clenching tightly into fists. "So… do you intend for us to back him up?"
The Martian hesitated for a moment before answering her. "Although that was my original plan, it is not the case. Nightwing reported this information because he claims that he has something else to do, and is currently unable to take this mission."
A look of curiosity lit Raven's features as his last words reached her ears. Nightwing had been obsessive about the whole situation from the very beginning… so why would he have something else to take care of? It really didn't make much sense. Although many questions had begun bombarding her mind, she remained silent and said nothing more on the subject.
"Do either of you have any questions?" he asked. When neither of them raised any concerns, the Martian seemed relatively satisfied. "Good… I have already set the Watchtower transporter to the proper coordinates. Please be ready to depart as soon as possible. Dismissed…"
The two heroes took that as their cue to leave as they walked through the metallic doors. After a few moments of silence, the two of them had reached the main room in the Watchtower.
The place was just as busy as always, as the space station personnel went about their daily business. Heroes entered and left the Watchtower on a regular basis, adding to the commotion in the space station.
Raven glanced up at the machine just in time to see Beast Boy, Aztec, and Jason Blood, vanish within a flash of light. She couldn't help but sigh as the transporter whisked her fellow heroes to another location. The movement of the heroes stepping in and out of the transporter made the place seem even busier than before, but it also made her think of how many people were in trouble around the world… and even beyond the Earth.
"Are you coming?" Black Canary asked from atop the steps.
The young sorceress nodded as she stepped onto the machine. While there was a time when she would have floated upwards, she decided to conserve her magic for the actual mission rather than waste it.
The man by the control panel flicked a thumb in the air, earning himself a nod from his supervisor as her punched in a sequence on the keyboard. "Coordinates set…" he replied, pulling the lever on the machine. A brilliant light engulfed the heroes, but as she struggled to regain her footing, the young sorceress realized that they had already arrived.
Black Canary stood a few feet away, a gruff expression flashing across her face as she straightened the sleeves of her jacket. "This must be the place…" she announced, gesturing towards the large building across the street.
them Raven waited until they were back into the hallway before she spoke again. Her new partner was wearing an odd expression, as if there was another problem going on that she didn't want to talk about, and Raven had been able to tell that there was something wrong since the moment that she had appeared in the control room.
While she considered the facts, the possibility remained that her teammate might impede the mission if she was preoccupied with personal issues… a lesson that Raven herself had learned many times in the past. Tossing aside her caution, the young sorceress decided to go for the direct approach.
"So… Something bothering you?" The older hero appeared to have heard her, but merely shook her head in abrupt manner, but giving no other sign that she had heard anything.
Raven sighed in an awkward fashion… it was usually her who gave her fellow heroes the cold shoulder before missions. "If something is bothering you… you are more than welcome to tell me about it." She replied, giving her teammate a reassuring smile. "After all, we have to work together so I figured that we should be willing to help each other out."
While the young sorceress was normally the calm type, she couldn't help but blush slightly as she realized what she had just said. Raven had never been the heartless type, but she had never really considered herself the kind of person to offer moral support to people that she barely knew.
Black Canary continued walking, her back turned to her teammate. The younger hero followed closely after her, quickening her pace to match her teammate. Charging forward, the young sorceress found herself face to face with the older hero who had suddenly stopped further away from the building than before.
"Why did you stop here?"
To her intense surprise, the older hero looked relatively calm, and did not seem to be annoyed by her question. "You don't intend to walk into a public establishment dressed like that… do you?"
Raven glanced down at her clothes, quickly remembering the importance of going undercover during missions. "Never mind that…" she replied, muttering a few incantations under her breath. As soon as she completed her chant, her body began to vanish, slowly losing all tangibility until she had all but vanished from view.
"Invisibility!?" The blonde looked a little surprised at first, but quickly recovered from the initial shock. Green Arrow had mentioned that she was a sorceress, so there really wasn't anything to be surprised about. Still, the older hero had never been partnered with one of the magically inclined members of the Justice League before. This was probably going to be an interesting experience.
Shrugging of the thought, Black Canary headed towards the door. "You plan to infiltrate the Meta Brawl by concealing yourself?"
"Precisely…" the unseen spell caster replied.
The older woman sighed. Reaching into her jacket, Black Canary pulled out a pair of "Meta Brawl- Metropolis" tickets. "The Martian had been able to obtain some at the last minute."
Raven shrugged, but the notion was unseen as she was invisible. "Sorry… but I'd rather do things my way.
To her surprise, the older hero appeared not to have been paying attention to her. She held out her hand in front of Raven, effectively silencing her. "Shhhhh… someone's watching us."
The young sorceress probed the area with her mind, quickly finding the presence and firing a stunning spell above Black Canary's head. The unfortunate victim of her attack let out a cry of pain as she came toppling off the fire escape of a nearby building. Raven's eyes widened in surprise as she caught sight of the interloper, quickly catching the person on a magic platform before she hit the ground.
"Huntress!" Raven breathed as Black Canary propped the unconscious woman up against a nearby building.
Black Canary let out a sigh of relief as Huntress came to. "Not a criminal… just a lackluster vigilante with a tacky cape." She taunted, grinning evilly as her rival stood up.
"Careful what you say, blondie." The woman hissed, shaking off the effects of Raven's spell as she turned to face the other two.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Black Canary interjected, raising an eyebrow in annoyance.
Huntress shrugged. "I told the guy at the transporter that I was going on the mission with you guys after you left."
"And he actually fell for it?" Raven asked incredulously.
"Nope, he was new." The masked female replied, looking amused at the thought of how easily she had manipulated him. She turned to the other woman. "Oh, and we never really finished our match, so I came along to get some action… and show you up by getting the job done."
"This is league business." The blonde replied, folding her arms in discontent. "You were fired, remember."
The masked woman let out an irritated scowl, her displeasure growing. "Whatever… I'm an independent now anyway."
"If independent means that you take order from Question, then yeah, you're as independent as they come." She retaliated.
"Either way face it, you two need could use some help if you run into trouble." Huntress said, flashing them a smirk.
Raven turned to Black Canary for an answer, deciding that it didn't matter to her either way.
"Fine… just don't get in my way."
"Actually… I was about to say the same thing." Huntress shot back, earning a glare from the blonde.
The young sorceress cocked an eyebrow in amusement. She had a strange feeling that this was going to be interesting.
NOTE TO READERS: If anyone noticed a little change in Raven's personality, it's due to the fact that she no longer has any anger or rage, making for a slightly more tolerant, and considerably more mellow person. Oh, and please REVIEW. I don't think that anyone is bothering to review at this point, and I would like to know if anyone is enjoying this story at this point. (Yes I know it's long) I'm sorry for taking longer with my updates, but I'm trying harder to write when I have the inspiration.