13. Wally
Rarely had Wally felt so powerless. He was useless – caught in a cell while his best friend was facing off against Batman's rogue's gallery. Wally glared at the Dark Knight who was still torturing Joker in the other cell. Seemingly oblivious to what was happening in the hallway.
Dick was going into a fighting stance. He narrowed his eyes looking for potential weaknesses.
"Can Batman at least hurry up if he wants to kill Joker?", Artemis balled her fists.
Clayface was the first to run at Dick – Mr. Freeze right behind him. The acrobat flipped out of the way and dropped a smoke bomb. There were loud thuds. Clayface was uncontrollably lashing out beating everything in his way. The Team couldn't see who he was hitting between the smoke. Wally prayed that Dick had gotten out of the way.
The temperature in the cell dropped. Mr. Freeze must be pointing his ice ray at everything that moved. It was an uncoordinated mess and Dick was caught right in the middle of it.
"Where do they have all their weapons from? What kind of prison is this?", Wally asked.
Aqualad still sounded strained – a side effect of being near fire and tranquilized afterwards: "Either Deathstroke set this all up or-"
"Arkham is incompetent", Artemis finished.
"Both is possible", Kaldur said.
The thudding stopped and Wally held his breath: "Do you think Nightwing is-"
The smoke cleared. Clayface was standing there motionless. Frozen.
Nightwing was on the other end of the hallway taking out Professor Pyg from behind.
"He could actually make it", Wally vibrated out of excitement, "Go Rob!"
"He's using the fact that villains couldn't do teamwork if their lives depended on it", Connor grinned.
Mr. Freeze screamed in annoyance. He pointed his ice ray at Dick. Nightwing jumped over the beam and used Mr. Freeze as a springboard to lunge himself at Killer Crock. Mr. Freeze sprung around - clearly even more irritated.
A beeping disk clung to Freeze's device. Dick must have planted it there when he jumped over the villain. The disc exploded destroying Freeze's device and knocking him unconscious.
Meanwhile Dick was hanging on Killer Crock's back. The villain clawed at Nightwing and jumped back against the glass windows trying to crush the hero. Dick pulled out multiple syringes and plunged them through Crock's thick skin all while evading Crock's claws and being squashed like a bug. The animal-man swayed but he was still dangerous throwing himself even more desperately against the windows.
Dick stabbed at Crock again. It was the fourth syringe. Wally had counted. Crock showed signs of slowing down but so was Dick. The mutant tore Nightwing from his back and threw him to the floor.
Dick flipped in the air and landed in a crouch. But Crock sank his teeth into Nightwings thigh and grabbed his arms. Dick screamed in pain trying to get Crock off of him. But his struggles were useless. Wally pounded against the window yelling curses at Crock.
"Maybe I should eat you", the crocodile-man pinned Nightwing down.
His bloody teeth neared Nightwing's throat but before he could bite, he fell down. Unconscious.
Dick halted for a moment catching his breath. He struggled when rolling out from under Crock. Dick stood on shaky legs. Blood was running down his left thigh. Nightwing swayed and propped himself up on a cell window. He seemed paler than usual and gasped for air.
Wally's stomach rebelled. This fight wasn't over. His friend was still going up against incredible odds. All while his mentor was pounding the Joker to a bloody pulp.
Wally wanted to do something. Something that made him less useless. The stress made him vibrate.
"You can do this, bro", Wally said, "We need you."
Dick looked up. Lines of exhaustion were etched into his face.
"Time to get thraught", Wally said.
Dick smiled and seemed to want to answer but a coin hit the glass next to his head – creating a little crack. Two-Face grinned insanely.
"These can't be normal coins", M'Gann said.
"Who knows what Two-Face did with them", Artemis shivered.
Nightwing forced himself back up again and evaded Two-Face's flying coins. He did well until Poison Ivy came out of nowhere attacking with her vines. They reached for his ankle.
Where the hell had the lady grown a plant from?
Dick cut the plants with his Wingdings and flipped out of the way of the coins. One of them hit the window in front of Wally's face. His throat tightened at the crack in the glass. Dick was deliberately moving in front of the team's cell trying to get Two-Face to destroy the glass. But the cracks were only slowly growing while Nightwing was visibly slowing down.
Dick seemed to be calculating something. Wally noticed the little cues. How his friend looked around the room noting distances. How he took one deep breath to prepare himself. His friend was thinking about taking a risk.
Dick halted for a moment throwing his escrima stick at Two-Face's forehead. Then he fell to the side to evade the coin Two-Face had thrown. The escrima stick hit Dent's face. Two-Face fell to the floor – unconscious. But Dick hadn't emerged out of the confrontation unscarred.
He was lying on the floor. Trembling. The coin lodged in his previously uninjured leg. Dick had calculated the risk. He had known that he would only be able to precisely hit Dent if he halted for a moment. But one moment had been enough for Two-Face to cause damage. Both of Dick's legs were injured. And Ivy was still going strong. She watched Dick's trembling form with a nasty smile on her face.
Nightwing stood up – leaving the coin in his leg. His legs were shaking and blood was running down both of his thighs. But he gritted his teeth and remained upstanding only supported by a nearby cell window.
"Seems like you aren't doing so well", Deathstroke laughed, "I could assist you."
"I'd rather die than let you assist me", Dick's voice was bitter.
The thought made Wally tremble more. Blood dripped from Nightwing's legs onto the floor. It was a sickening sight. Wally suppressed the need to vomit. Why was he so useless? How could some stupid glass wall keep him from saving his friend's life?
"Only Ivy left", Connor said, "He can do this.
"You forgot Scarecrow", M'Gann shivered when thinking about the villain.
"Shit", Artemis cursed, "He must be up to something."
Ivy's vines again reached for Dick's ankles. He cut them with his Wingdings. But Ivy sent a bigger vine towards him - throwing him back. Nightwing's head collided with the floor. Wally heard the crack.
Dick seemed disoriented. His gaze flew through the hallway.
A vine wrapped itself around his ankle. Ivy pulled him towards herself in a painfully slow manner.
"She's drawing this out", Artemis hit against the glass in frustration.
"Look what I caught", she smiled to herself and looked at Batman, "Hey, Bats. How about you watch the show? It would be a waste if I killed your sidekick without you as my audience."
Batman didn't respond. He didn't even seem to notice her. His gaze was glued to the Joker who was writhing in laughter on the floor.
Dick seemed to regain some of his awareness. He took out another Wingding and tried to cut the plant. But another vine ripped the Wingding out of his hand and threw it away. Dick frantically tried to reach it. He was leaving a trail of blood.
Slade leaned against the wall clinically watching the scene: "I could still assist you, apprentice. Your display showed... potential."
"Piss off", Dick's voice was weak.
Ivy's vine wrapped itself around Dick's torso lifting him into the air. The plant lady seemed frustrated. She glared at Batman: "Fine. I'll just finish him off and leave him for you to find."
The vine tightened around Dick's torso. There were multiple cracks as Nightwing's rips broke under the pressure. Ivy was slowly suffocating him. He whimpered weakly.
"HEY BATMAN", Wally screamed, "How about you do your job and actually save people?"
Bruce seemingly did not notice Wally. He was leaning over the Joker with a Batarang leaving precise cuts. Cuts to torture but not to kill. Batman was drawing this out all while his son was dying. Could revenge really make a person so single-minded? Wally shuddered.
Not even Dick would be able to get himself out of this one. Catwoman had left. Batman had only his mission in mind. It fell to Wally to act. To stand by his bro's side. Quickly. Dick's head was sinking forward as Ivy pressed the life out of him.
Wally focused on the shaking in his body. He remembered Uncle Barry's instructions. If he would ever be able to vibrate through solid objects, it would be now. Wally had never shaken so heavily in his life. The thought of losing his best friend in front of his eyes was unbearable.
Wally took a deep breath and ran towards the glass.
He expected a collision. But he ended up in the middle of the hallway. Wally blinked in surprise. It had worked. He ripped himself out of his stasis. Wally ran towards Ivy and crashed into her with pure speed. The vine around Dick loosened itself. Wally caught his friend before he could fall to the floor.
Dick's eyes were half-closed. He looked up to Wally trying to form a sentence.
"Stay still, bro. I got you", Wally tried to be as gentle as possible.
Every shift of Dick's broken ribs could prove fatal. Wally ran to the door at the end of the corridor. It was still closed electronically. He could vibrate out of this hellhole but he couldn't take Rob with him. Maybe Barry could do something like that but Wally didn't trust himself to get his bro to the other side.
It had the potential to do more harm than good.
Wally carefully set Dick down. He could finally make out what Dick was saying: "Bruce."
"He's an asshole", Wally said.
"Stop him", Dick's eyes closed themselves.
Typical. Even when half-dead Rob could only think about others.
"Please", he slurred, "I- Important to me-"
Wally bit his lip: "I'm stopping him if you promise to stay awake."
He did as much first aid as he could opening a compartment at his arm (where he usually stored food) and took out a bandage. He had known that they would need it.
"Pro- Promise", Dick mumbled and forced his eyes back open, "S- See?"
Wally finished bandaging Dick's thigh and took one second to admire his work.
Wally hated that after all this Dick was still thinking about Bruce. But he had made a promise. And they needed Batman's hacking skills anyway to get out of here. Wally had to be quick. Dick didn't have much time. Thank God, Wally was a speedster.
He didn't want to leave Dick. But there was no other option. Wally ran towards the other end of the hallway evading the bodies of the unconscious villains.
It was suspicious that Deathstroke wasn't doing anything. The guy had to be planning something. But Wally had no time to think about that. Wally bit his lip and vibrated into Joker's cell. Now that he had experienced the feeling of his molecules being ripped apart, he could replicate it.
The cell was coated in blood. And pure rage radiated from Batman's stance. He was furious. Normally, Wally would be scared. But after what Batman had done – or failed to do – not even the Dark Knight could match Kid Flash's anger. He rammed into the Dark Knight.
AN: I really put Dick through the wringer in this one. But it was necessary as this is a major turning point in the story. Next week we'll finally finish the 'Arkham arc' (as I'm starting to call it). I hope you've enjoyed until now. I really love writing Dick's and Wally's friendship – as you've probably noticed.
I took a bit of inspiration for the fight from the "the Batman" episode "Rumors". Basically Batman and Robin fight the entire Rogue's Gallery in it. They are able to take them out through smart team work while the villains are an uncoordinated mess. It's quite a fun fight and one of the best episode from what I've seen of the show.