ai2
ALIEN INVASION: PART 2
Robin looked around the ruined boardwalk, whoever that
woman was, she was gone now. He looked down at the unconscious girl,
he had bigger problems to deal with anyway.
"Hey, can you hear me?" he asked again, brushing her
hair away from her cuts and bruises.
The girl stirred and Robin sighed with relief.
He could hear the sirens approaching in the background.
"Stay still," he said to her, "Help's on the way."
Her eyes flew open and made contact with his. Before
he could realize what was happening, she had him lying flat on his back.
"I see you're not a very trusting person," he said, raising
his pounding head.
She backed away silently before she turned and fled down
the hill towards the water.
Dick slowly got up, his head still swimming from the
blow the girl delivered to him. She was gone, the woman on the roof
was gone, the boardwalk was destroyed and he'd basically screwed up.
Dick came down the stairs, still dejected over the last
night's events.
"Alfred?" he asked the butler upon seeing him in the
kitchen, "How come you let me sleep in late this morning?"
Alfred took out a carton of juice from the refrigerator,
"It is a weekend after all, Master Dick."
"True," he said slowly, "I guess I just wanted to on
top of things today."
"Well I see you've had a busy night."
"Huh?"
Alfred handed him the paper. Dick scanned it quickly.
"The destruction of the boardwalk," he said slowly, "I
was there but…I just saw one woman, she was strong. From what it
says in the paper, she might have been single-handedly responsible for
it. But why?"
"It says she died of severe dehydration," Alfred said,
"There was another man on the docks too and he was dehydrated as well."
"That's weird," Dick said, "Say Alfred, hasn't there
been reports of similar cases like this. People suffering from severe
dehydration."
"I believe so, over the last few days," he said.
Dick mulled over his thoughts, "I think I'll hit the
beach today."
"Hey kid, you'll have to back up," a police officer said,
"This is a crime scene."
She looked over the scene one final time and walked away,
heading towards the beach. They couldn't have gotten far. Not
without a ship and not without a body to transport them. They had
to be somewhere in the area and she would find them, destroy them and leave.
That easy. She looked around the beach, there were way too many people
in the water on the sand. And it was too close to the ocean, they
wouldn't be there. They'd be somewhere dark and dank. Somewhere
like a cave. She surveyed the area and saw a cliff of jagged rocks.
If she remembered correctly, there were caves on the other side.
She could drop down if she went up top. She climbed back up to the
boardwalk.
Dick looked around, the police had already quarantined
the area. He would have to sneak in. His attention was diverted
when he saw a girl climb up from the beach.
Pay attention, Dick, he reprimanded himself, You're
investigating, now isn't the time to chase after a pretty girl.
She headed over in the direction of the rocky cliff.
A pretty girl in danger, on the other hand, he
thought running after her.
Once she got to the cliff, she leaned over to look down,
checking out the height from where she was. She turned around and
proceeded to climb it down. She saw a boy running towards her, it
was the same boy she saw yesterday at the supermarket. She continued
to climb down until a hand grabbed her, holding her back.
"What are you doing?" the boy asked, "This cliff is way
too dangerous to climb."
She shook his hand off and continued to climb.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" he asked.
She ignored him.
"Fine," he said, getting down, "If you insist on going,
I'm going with you."
She held out her hand to stop him. She didn't need
anyone getting in her way in case the Scryrithians were down there.
"If you're going, I'm going," he said firmly.
She glared at him. If he wants to follow, fine,
I'd like to see him try.
She was about to continue when she felt something.
A Scryrithian. One was nearby. She climbed back up the cliff.
"Good," he said, thinking she was listening to him.
She scanned the area, the only people nearby was the
boy and the police officers. She walked up to the boy. It wasn't
him.
"Uh…what?" he asked, uncomfortable with their closeness.
She looked back at the crime scene and started to run.
"Hey! Wait! Where are you going?!" he shouted,
going after her.
"Hey Jones!" Officer Tierney called out, "I found something
down here under the boardwalk," he said, "Come take a look at it."
He led the officer towards the stairs when a girl came
running towards him and lunged at him, sending them both tumbling to the
ground. He threw her off but she quickly regained herself.
"So we meet again," he sneered, "Jones, restrain her,
she's attacking an officer."
The officer grabbed her, holding on to each arm as she
struggled violently against them. Officer Tierney pulled out his
gun.
"Consider this revenge for what you did to my people,"
he said pointing the gun at her.
"Hey, Mike, what are you doing?" Jones said.
Tierney shot him in the arm and pointed it back to the
girl. The gun was knocked out of the officer's hand with a kick and
another kick sent him to the floor. He easily got up reaching for
the gun, but Dick kicked it out of the way. The officer got up and
punched Dick, knocking him over the boardwalk and unto the sand.
The girl jumped on the man, slamming his head against the rail before throwing
him over the rail and into the water. She was about to jump down
and see if Dick was okay when she felt something behind her. She
turned around and saw Jones standing there in front of her, blood running
down his shirt.
"When they told me that the Guardian was here," he said,
bringing out his gun, "I didn't believe them."
She shot a weak blast at him, enough to stun and not
to injure, at the same time he shot his gun at her. She dodged the
bullet but it grazed her head slightly, causing her to fall back.
She fell through the wooden guardrail and off the boardwalk. Jones
fell back unconscious but still alive. She groaned in pain as she
looked down at the wooden stake from the guardrail impaled in her side.
She braced herself and pulled it out, letting the blood flow. She
looked over at the shore and saw Tierney's body out of the water.
"He'll be okay," Dick said, walking over to her, "He's
just unconscious."
She tried to get up despite the pain.
"Whoa there," he said, stopping her, "You're hurt."
She shook her head, pressing on the wound to stop the
blood.
"That's bleeding way too much, we have to get you to
a doctor."
She shook her head even more violently.
"Can you talk?" he asked softly.
She shook her head slowly.
Not to you at least.
"Listen, I have to get you to a hospital or you might
bleed to death."
She shook her head again and pushed herself away from
him. She looked around, she couldn't feel the presence of any Scryrithians.
She'd failed…again. The blood was coming out more now, it was a dark
thick red. She'd probably damaged her liver.
"Well then let me take you somewhere where you can get
some help," he said insistently, "Don't worry, it's not a hospital."
She hesitated for a minute. She was bleeding a
lot. She slowly nodded her head. She'd have to trust this guy-temporarily.
Dick helped her out from under the boardwalk over to
a pay phone.
"Stay here," he said heading over to the pay phone to
call Alfred, "I'll be right back."
She nodded as he turned away and closed her eyes before
disappearing. She never actually said she wanted any help.
Dick dialed home and turned around to face out of the
phone booth. He looked around, not expecting to find anything but
feeling as though he was supposed to be doing something. He looked
down at the phone and hung up. Why was he calling Alfred? He
slowly walked out of the phone booth, looking confused. How did he
get to a phone booth in the first place.
The accident on the boardwalk. The cops.
What were they doing again?
He noticed the trail of bloodstained sand and some blood
on his clothes.
What just happened?
The girl collapsed against the wall of the alley.
She wasn't bleeding as much anymore but luckily for her she healed fast.
Just one of the many perks of having superhuman powers. Although,
if she didn't have these powers she wouldn't get into situations where
she would be bleeding all over an alley floor. It was a double-edged
sword type thing. She edged further into the alley, towards the dark
corners. She'd wait here until she was well enough to continue her
search. She hoped she didn't have to wait long. Time was running
out.
Leslie Thompkins made her usual rounds around the neighborhood.
They'd already brought in five homeless persons suffering from severe dehydration.
Three had died. She'd never seen anything like it before, not even
during the worst heat wave in Gotham. She tightened the belt of her
coat around her waist. It was getting cold…and dark. She decided
to start heading back when she heard a loud crash up ahead. She cautiously
walked up to the alley, not knowing what to expect. She peered in
and spied some overturned trash cans and two dogs licking a young girl
who was bleeding and unconscious.
"Oh my God!"
She looked around the room. It was pretty, the bed
was soft. She snuggled under the covers. The bed was very soft.
It'd been a long time since she was in a bed this nice. She sighed,
she wish she could just fall asleep. But she couldn't, she had to
leave soon. She could probably make it out the window in her condition.
She'd leave a nice thank you note for them. She was so tired, her
eyes could barely stay open. She heard the word "infection" being
thrown around when she was brought in. She hoped it wasn't anything
serious. They had already given her some drug, that was why she was
tired. They were slowing her down.
This is all wrong…can't they see…I have to go and
work…they don't even know how little time they have left…they can't make
her sleep…she wouldn't let them…
Robin tapped lightly on the doctor's office window.
Dr. Thompkins looked up from her paperwork and motioned him in.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?" she asked as he let
himself inside.
"Hey doc," Robin said smiling, "I was wondering if you
might know anything that could be of help to me."
"Regarding what?"
"The rash of people dying from dehydration."
"All I know is that in the span of four days we've brought
in fifteen people because of it and only four have walked out."
"I'm wondering if there's any kind of pattern to the
victims," Robin said, "Is there anything they have in common?"
"I can't say," she said, "Some have been vagrants, homeless,
mothers, fathers, children, even one of our own staff."
"I don't understand it."
"Neither do I," she said, getting up, "We picked up five
today. Out of the two that survived, only one has woken up.
He's in recovery now."
"Could I maybe talk to him?"
"If he's awake now I suppose," she said leading him to
the patient's area.
Robin followed Dr. Thompkins to the bed of the patient
he was to see. On the way there, he passed a girl asleep in one of
the bed with a pained expression on her face. Her eyes were shut
tight and her whole body was tense as if she were waiting for something
to happen.
"I'll go and see if he's awake," Leslie told Robin.
Leslie walked away as Robin stepped closer to the sleeping
girl. Her beautiful face was distorted in pain as she clenched the
thin sheets covering her tightly. Robin had a strange urge to reach
out and comfort her but decided against it. It was just a bad dream.
It would pass.
This mission is not going well.
I know.
Your methods are uncoordinated and amateurish.
I know.
You should have had this resolved by now.
I know!
If you know all this, then why haven't you fixed the
situation yet?
It's complicated.
Simplify it for us.
I'll finish them off, you don't have to worry about
that.
You hesitate because you don't want to kill the innocent
on your planet.
Is that so bad?
When you let yourself get sidetracked by your attachments
to that world, you let them win. Is that what you want?
Of course not!
Then don't hesitate! You must act quickly and
decisively. Time is of the essence.
Yes. I know.
You are ill.
I'm fine now.
Then wake up.
Let me go and I will.
We are finding your attitude to be increasingly disrespectful.
Let me go.
Perhaps it was unwise to allow you to return to your
home planet.
Let me go.
From your sleep?
From everything.
That's not possible.
"Then leave me alone!" she shouted, waking up.
Robin jumped back startled.