a/n: hi all,
Back to modern times! Thanks again to everyone for sticking with the story.
Cheers, EQT.95
"What is that?" Melvin shouted to Renee. They were trying to swim upstream through swarms of people running away from the deflating balloon. A cloud of hazy blue fog growing out of the collapsing bat had caught Melvin's attention as they drew closer.
"I-I don't know," Renee shouted back with a sliver of fear in her voice.
What had begun as a simple afternoon filled with childhood nostalgia was suddenly becoming a nightmare. Renee hesitated, stopping her progress as she took in the scene: people who were just outside of the fog's radius were fleeing in terror, but the people caught inside the blue cloud were reacting very differently.
"Melvin!" Renee shouted suddenly. Realizing he was too far ahead, she rushed through the wave of people to catch up with him. "Melvin, wait!"
He paused, hearing Renee shout his voice.
"Look," Renee pointed out, and Melvin began seeing what Renee had observed moments before. "They're… it looks like they're…"
"Why aren't they leaving?" Melvin wondered aloud of the silhouettes caught in the fog.
"I think that fog has something to do with it."
"It came out of the balloon. The voice-"
"This has to have been one of the two."
"But what was the other one?"
"Didn't you hear him before it cut out? The other one was for Batwoman," Renee explained.
Sophie felt the ground meet her in a rush. Just as quickly as the bright light appeared, everything was cloaked in black. She felt a sharp pain where her head struck the ground and stars appeared collaged across her eyes. A surge of adrenaline raced through her veins as she tried to identify the unexpected weight pinning her to the ground. Disoriented, she blinked through the renewed darkness, trying to understand what had just happened: how was she still coherent, and how was she still in one piece?
Her fingers gripped into the darkness around the form on top of her. It took only a second to realize the feel of the curves beneath her hands were from another body.
The weight on top of her shifted, and Sophie began to remember the final seconds before the explosion: just as the clock depleted, Batwoman had leapt, shielding her from the blast. It was both selfless and reckless. The burst of light had come from the explosion rigged to the timer, and the ensuing darkness had come from Batwoman's cape currently covering her face. It was only as it slid off that Sophie saw the remnants of the explosion as dull flames lingering along the edges of the room.
Batwoman rolled herself off Sophie, letting out a small groan of aching. After a moment of orienting herself, she sat upright to survey the room.
"You ok?" she muttered, glancing over at Sophie.
"Small bump but - I-I'm fine…" Sophie began, as she watched Batwoman climb to her feet. She stared stunned that she was able to do this with ease after acting as the barrier between a bomb and Sophie's certain death only moments earlier. "H-how are you?" she asked, trying to match Batwoman's response time and stand. As she began to rise though, a wave of nausea and dizziness forced her back down.
"Head?" Batwoman asked, finally registering Sophie's earlier words. Her voice was filled with apology and concern, and before Sophie could respond, Batwoman had returned to Sophie's level. A bright light appeared out of nowhere. "Look ahead," Batwoman said softly before bringing the light to her right eye.
After a moment she alternated to the left before going through the process again with both eyes. Just as quickly as it all began, the light disappeared, and Sophie found herself trying to blink away the floating dots that remained.
"Concussion," Batwoman said simply, but her tone suggested anger. Anger at what exactly, Sophie couldn't determine. "You should get to a hospital to make sure it isn't anything serious."
Sophie stared up in surprise.
"Me? Wh-what about you? You literally just took a bomb to the back," Sophie asked in surprise.
"I'll be fine. A small explosion is nothing to having a building fall on you," Batwoman said dryly. Sophie was about to respond in apology when she saw a small smirk play across Batwoman's face.
Sophie slowly rose to her feet, ignoring the waves of dizziness as she scanned the room. Bits of residue could faintly be made out from the explosion, and Sophie took in the remnants, noting that the fading flames meant even the smallest bits of evidence were slowly disintegrating.
"He said there were two," Batwoman muttered from across the room.
Sophie stared in mild amazement at Batwoman's ability to refocus before jumping alongside her thought process. Concussion or not, there was another threat at play.
"He also said something about pulling or… popping-"
"Plucking a symbol from the sky," Batwoman interrupted. She said it with a familiarity like she'd heard the words before.
"What does that mean?" Sophie asked, walking toward the point of detonation and seeing little that could be identified.
"I…" Batwoman began before fading out. Her head turned toward the hall as she exited the room. Sophie followed after as she watched Batwoman silently navigate through the building again. It was as they got closer to the west edge of it that the screaming and shouting could be heard. They paused at a stairwell being flooded by light passing through dingy glass blocks.
"Hang on… a symbol… from the sky? Did - did he mean you?" Sophie said, the pieces starting to come together. "The bomb. He knew you'd show up. That was the first. And the second?... The parade. The-the balloon?"
"I need to go," Batwoman replied simply, coming to the same conclusion. She began ascending the stairs toward the roof.
"I'm coming with you," Sophie rushed, following Batwoman.
"Not a chance. You're staying here-"
"No, I'm not letting y-"
"Soph, stop," Batwoman interrupted, pausing on the steps and looking back toward Sophie. The shadows kept her face in the dark, but it was clear to Sophie from her voice that she wasn't open for negotiating. Even if Sophie disregarded her, Batwoman would be faster without her tagging along. But there was something else.
"Wh-..." Sophie opened her mouth to argue but fell silent. She stared back at Batwoman, a lingering familiarity tingling at her periphery -
"You have a concussion. You're in no position to do anything until you get checked out," Batwoman began. "Call for back-up. You're Lead Crow. Get every on-call member down here now."
Sophie barely registered the words before Batwoman continued climbing the stairs.
"And don't leave until they get here," Batwoman's voice commanded, her voice echoing down the stairwell as her figure disappeared.
"You just called her Soph. I thought..." Luke remarked cautiously as he heard Kate's breathing labor with each flight of stairs she climbed. "I mean, maybe she didn't notice, but-"
"She noticed," Kate admitted between breaths, cursing herself for the slip-up.
"We'll deal with it later," Luke offered, as she reached the top landing and knowing her mind was on the task at hand. While Kate was recovering from the explosion four floors down, Luke's ear had been pressed to the GCPD radio line which was reporting an explosion along the parade route. The specifics were still unclear, but rioting and violence had followed in the surrounding areas.
"So what happened?" Kate asked, repeating her actions from earlier of kicking through the locked door to the roof.
"From what I can gather, the balloon was rigged."
"Explosives?"
"That's the weird thing: there was no sign of detonation."
"What do you mean?"
"It's almost like it just popped."
"So what's the problem?"
"It's what came out of the balloon that's the problem."
"What does that mean?" Kate asked, wishing Luke could provide an auto-download of information.
"That's what I'm still trying to figure out… but Kate…"
"What?"
"It doesn't look good."
"This doesn't look good," Melvin remarked. They'd been lingering at the perimeter of the fog for a few minutes, trying to understand what exactly it was. It hung in the air, unwilling or unable to dissipate. The remnants of the bat balloon were piled in the middle of the street as an eerie symbol. Anyone who wasn't in the fog's range had cleared the area, leaving Melvin, Renee, and a handful of GCPD watching in isolation from the sidelines.
They watched the people caught in the haze react in different ways. Some had collapsed while others appeared to react aggressively. The sound of glass shattering could be heard through the shouts as some began damaging adjacent storefronts.
"You guys called for backup, right?" Melvin asked one of the cops. The cop nodded silently, his eyes wide with fear. He was young with barely any stubble on his face. Melvin glanced over at the other two cops who were of similar age. "How long have you been cops?"
"Uh, six months sir," he replied nervously.
"And them?" He asked, nodding at the other two.
"Same, sir. We were in the same graduating class."
"They just let you patrol without a senior partner?"
"Only on weekends, sir. Senior cops don't work weekends."
"Shit," Melvin said, realizing the backup wasn't going to be anyone with leadership experience. He walked over to Renee. "Can the Crows-"
"I got a notification two minutes ago. They're already inbound," Renee replied, waving her phone at him. In unison they both concluded: "Sophie."
She had disappeared minutes before the incident, and Renee had a lingering suspicion that Sophie had somehow already found herself in the middle of it.
An explosion caused them to redirect their attention back to the dense blue. A car erupted in flames, drowning out the cries and shouts from within it.
"We need to get in there," Renee said, anxious to help.
"Not until we know what that stuff is," Melvin said with mounting frustration. "How can it take this long for back-up?"
Just then a silhouette swung past them from a rooftop above before landing beyond the fog's edge.
"Is that-?"
"Batwoman? Yea," Renee said with a sigh.
"Looks like one of the two didn't work."
"Looks that way."
"Not a fan?" Melvin asked, noting the tone in Renee's voice.
"Normally, no. But today? Today, I'll take whatever we can get."
Kate landed less than gracefully inside the thick of the cloud. She wasn't used to the mask and its effect on her depth perception was making it difficult to gauge her surroundings.
She glanced around, trying to make sense of the chaos contained within the fog.
"I'm picking up at least thirty," Luke advised. "What's the thinking? Passive or active ones first?"
"Passive," Kate replied. Luke had tapped into the street cameras and provided a summary of findings while she made her way over. There was a spectrum of activity, but generally people fell into two camps: either they were unmoving, as though paralyzed by something, or they were actively chasing something. "They'll be easy casualties if the violent ones get too…"
"Violent?" Luke offered.
"Uncreative, but sure," she said, making her way over to a huddled form.
Sophie was rushing up 6th Avenue toward the parade route shouting commands to the task force over the sounds of screaming and shouting. Like Melvin and Renee, she was fighting to make progress against the current of people fleeing for safer spaces, and Sophie quietly cursed the lack of GCPD presence at the parade. She'd yet to see a single cop or police vehicle.
"I want one team on the north end, two each to the east and west setting up a perimeter. A fourth come up from the south - I'll meet you one block due south of the intersection," Sophie commanded over the radio. "Paulie, your team was already stationed over at Miller Harbor?... Good, you lead the eastside. Willis will take Robinson park to the west. Under no circumstances is lethal force to be used, you copy?... rubber bullets only if warranted," she commanded. "Check in when positions are made."
By the time she finished her direction, the crowd had dissipated, allowing the freedom to navigate more easily up the street. She could see a strange blue haze a few blocks up and figured it was the site of the former bat balloon. Cast against it was a backdrop of ever-growing cloud coverage. An ominous strike of lightning off in the distance meant things were about to get even more difficult.
"There!" Renee shouted, rushing toward the incoming red-cowled figure carrying another person out of the mist. Melvin remained back, working to contain the other seven Batwoman had already brought out, unsure how many more they could handle before more help arrived.
Batwoman said very little, her mask limiting communication, but the bit she did say suggested there were more to come, and these first ones were the calmest of them all. Melvin wasn't sure he wanted to know what the erratic ones would be like.
The first few came out and curled up into fetal positions, crying and mumbling nonsensical remarks. One woman was weeping about her missing daughter while another man kept apologizing to someone named Timmy. The fifth one was the first sign of variability: instead of sitting quietly, lost in his own self-destitution, he lashed out, grabbing Renee in the process and accusing her of ruining his life.
"Why? Why didn't you stop?!" he screamed over and over. That Renee had never met the man before in her life did little to quell his shouts of terror, and Melvin and one of the cops quickly detained him with a set of cuffs.
"This one was a bit of trouble," Batwoman said.
"What happened?" Renee asked, noting a slight limp in Batwoman's step as she lowered an unconscious female to the ground.
"Not sure. It was either a pipe or the world's stalest piece of bread. People have broken into a hardware store - my guess is she thought she was defending herself. Things might start to get messy."
"Start?"
"Touché. Where's back-up?" she asked, trying to catch her breath and looking up to see the same empty street as before.
"I'd give it another five," Renee said apologetically as she leaned down to check the unconscious woman's pulse. "Her heart is racing."
"That makes two of us," Batwoman said. "You got her?" she continued, looking back toward the fires burning inside the fog.
"Yea, you go," Renee said, waving over one of the cops.
Renee glanced back to see Batwoman raise her grappling gun, and as she did, she noticed the clouds breaking open and a plane of raindrops begin to fall from the sky.
"I hate the rain," Kate muttered as she ascended to a nearby terrace, the rain that started as a sprinkle quickly accelerated into a downpour.
"An hour ago it was the heat."
"An hour ago I wasn't fending off irrationally angry people."
"Does this mean you'd rather be fighting irrationally angry people in the heat?"
Kate paused, realizing Luke had outwitted her.
"Where's the next one?" she continued, brushing past Luke's remark.
She heard a snicker through the mic as she surveyed the ground below. There were still dozens of people, and she couldn't keep this up. They were beginning to attack together - the last person she pulled out came at the expense of a few surprise blows by her unintentional comrades.
"Ten feet southwest of the burning taxi," he replied. "They've been still for a while. My guess is they're harmless."
"On it," Kate replied affirmatively before leaping from her post toward the glowing flames.
"You're getting better," Luke teased as she only stumbled a pace or two on landing.
"Next time you get to jump around, and I'll sit behind the computer," Kate muttered.
"Melvin?"
"Sophie! We wondered where you'd gone to. Care to join in the fun?" Melvin asked.
"We?"
"Renee's around here somewhere. Any chance there's more than just you as back-up?"
"Six teams should be here any minute," Sophie said distracted by the group of people handcuffed around her. "What is this?"
"That," Melvin began, gesturing toward the blue haze, "is making everyone and their mothers go mad. I've never seen anything like it."
"How are you getting them out?"
"Batwoman," Melvin said simply. "Can you help me with-?" he continued, nodding toward the male struggling to stand while cuffed. They both rushed over to keep the man grounded. "Ah, you're the one whose life was ruined by Renee. Poor chap."
"What?" Sophie asked in confusion as she scanned around and saw the incoming Crow truck.
"I'll tell you later. Get your guys in there - Batwoman's doing her best but is not equipped for… all of that," he gestured toward the fog. "Although, this rain is helping."
Melvin wasn't wrong; the rain was beginning to clear the haze and, with it, make clear the ongoing destruction occurring along the city block. That the fog was dissipating introduced another problem: the people infected by whatever gas was in the balloon were beginning to wander outside of the cloud's perimeter.
"Did you babysit as a kid?" Melvin asked casually as he watched a burly looking male with a bat come running out of the cloud.
"Nannied for two summers, why?"
"Great, so you'll be fine watching these guys while I…" he said, gesturing toward the fleeing figure.
"Go," Sophie said, rolling her eyes as he broke into a grin.
"Behind you and to the left," Luke advised as Kate dodged another incoming strike before taking a blow to the side.
"Not helping," Kate heaved. She heard two shouts to her right and, before she had to to react, was shoved by something on her left. Losing her balance, she fell to her side before a weight pinned her to the ground.
"You killed them!" a voice shouted at her.
"Wh-?" She took a blow to the side before she could orient herself to the swinging limbs of the man above her. She braced her arms to block another strike before countering it with her own blow. He paused in surprise, and Kate saw tears were streaming down his face.
"Why didn't you save them? Why weren't you th-"
"What are you talking about?" Kate shouted, knocking him off her. She quickly rolled over, pinning him to the ground as he continued shouting.
"You were supposed to be there for us Batman, and now they're dead," he cried.
"What is going on?" Kate muttered.
"Kate, I think… I think he thinks you're Batman."
"Duck!" came a cry from behind Renee. Instinctively she lowered herself to the ground and felt the wind above her whistle as an object swung through the air. She glanced up just in time to see Melvin fly out of nowhere and tackle a figure to her left wielding a saw. The saw fell lamely next to them as Melvin made quick work of pinning him to the ground.
"Zip-tie?" Melvin called behind him at Renee, jolting her from the moment's shock.
She quickly lifted herself from the ground, hurrying to Melvin's side.
"That was impressive," Renee said in surprise.
"Yea, you should see what I can do when I'm not on vacation," Melvin said, slightly winded.
"Speaking of vacation, any sign of Sophie or is she still on one?"
"She dropped in a few minutes ago but left for the park," Melvin said. "A pack of the zombies sprang loose, and your guys are tracking them in there. Another group just entered the cloud with gas masks. They're making quick work."
"Zombies?"
"I haven't had time to come up with something cleverer."
"I won't hold it against you," she said as they worked to heave the struggling form up and toward the Crows truck half a block away.
Renee watched as two Crow team members rushed toward them. "Let go of him," one said. Melvin and Renee hesitated before complying and, without warning, the Crow tased the man, causing him to collapse to the ground.
"What did you do that for? He was tied up," Melvin asked, stunned by the act as the two Crow members scooped the limp form up.
"He's a danger; we need to contain him."
"You can't just do that to innocent people. These people aren't criminals," Melvin shouted. "Whatever they inhaled - they're not thinking clearly; they're not themselves."
"Tell that to the shop owners," the other Crow member said as they dragged the man toward the truck.
"You said how many?" Sophie asked, hardly believing her ears over the pouring rain and pounding ache in her head.
"42, ma'am. Gotham General's ER unit is at capacity. We're sending the rest to University Hospital over in Newark."
"Good. You've sent notice?"
"Yes, they can take another ten plus what we've already sent. We're running a north to south sweep for stragglers. The blockade to the south has just been established as a terminating line."
"Make sure the east and west edges are tracked as well. We've already had stragglers racing through the park. Have the four teams already set up act as the boundary limits."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Make sure we capture as much evidence as we can before the rain wipes it away. Get water samples; I want to know what that stuff is. I also want a team at the old warehouse off 68th and 6th. A detonation occurred there, and I want any evidence bagged and tagged."
"Yes, ma'am, forensics is ten minutes out."
"Were there any casualties?"
"One reported; a civilian trampled to death. "
"Identified?"
"Not yet. GCPD has the body. There's another fifty or so listed as missing. I think we can assume the 42 will drop that list down quite a bit once identified though."
Sophie sighed. "Thanks Willis. Please work as point for the sweep. If you find anything, let me know immediately."
"Yes, ma'am."
She watched Willis turn to leave before pausing.
"And ma'am?"
"What?"
"Might I suggest an umbrella?" he said, noting Sophie's appearance.
Sophie smirked
"It's a bit late for that now, Willis." She had long ago reached the threshold of being drenched. He nodded in understanding before running toward the nearest Crow truck. The lights were glowing through the rain, and she could just make out the silhouettes of Crows loitering in wait for direction. She saw Willis hand down her orders and the group react by jumping into the truck. The brake lights glowed red before releasing, and she watched the truck accelerate north toward the rest of the Crows sweeping the area.
She glanced around the rest of the site, seeing a number of Crows setting up perimeter around the deflated balloon. Her eyes finally landed on Melvin who was positioned under an awning, squinting out over the streets with a look of concern.
"Why the look? Never been wet before?" Sophie asked, as she walked toward him. The teasing smile on her face fell when she saw the seriousness on his.
"I think Kate's missing," he said simply.
"What?" Sophie asked, her stomach dropping. "What do you mean?"
"Or at least she's suddenly stopped answering her phone. Which is… I've called her a handful of times and keep getting voicemail," Melvin said, clearly worried as he pulled out his phone again. "She was on her way over."
"How long ago?"
"I called her when the balloon first…"
Sophie hesitated. There had been a casualty. Another handful were missing. "I… I don't know, I mean Kate is - I mean, maybe…" Sophie said before trailing off. Her head was pulsing from earlier, but her mind was racing with these variables. Kate wasn't one to go silent.
"Have you cleared the area?"
"We're doing another pass before the all-clear."
"Maybe her phone got… I could call in a favor and track it. Do you have her address?" Melvin asked, his operative skills at work trying to come up with options.
"Y-yea," Sophie said, mentally plotting the fastest route. She knew she should stay behind to oversee the task force, but she also noticed Melvin glance at his watch. "How much time?" she asked, realizing his flight was looming.
"Just under three hours."
"You should go."
"But what abo-"
"You go; I'll message you when I find her propped up in some corner club," Sophie said, trying to stay light. "It is Saturday after all."
Melvin eyed her skeptically. "I think you're joking, but that isn't-"
"I know," Sophie said, admitting what she'd come to realize two weeks earlier. "They're all lies."
A recent article in the Gotham Gazette had tied Kate to the Iceberg Lounge the same night they'd shared half a bottle of whisky at Kate's new place. That was all Sophie needed to begin interrogating the articles more closely and realizing for herself that they weren't exactly based in reality. What she didn't understand was why Kate was going along with it if they were fake.
"Seems to be a pattern with her these days," Melvin remarked darkly. "Are you - is it going to be a problem with Renee if..."
Sophie's scowl was enough to quiet Melvin. Regardless of what ultimatum was or wasn't at play, Sophie wasn't about to let it dictate whether she'd look for Kate or not.
"Message me when you find her."
"I will," Sophie said, a cloud of concern looming at Kate's silence. "How about next time-"
"We don't have a domestic terrorist attack as the day's entertainment?"
"Something like that," Sophie said as Melvin grinned sadly.
"I..."
"I'm sure she's fine."
"I… I know…" he said, glancing at his watch. His superiors would skin him alive if he missed the flight. The domino effect meant missing a full day of meetings, briefings, and schmoozing.
"Go. It's fine… it's… it's Kate."
"That's what I'm worried about. You remember her during fourth term."
"I was actually thinking about fifth."
"Same difference. She isn't-"
"Invincible. I know."