"Then leave me alone!" she shouted, waking up.
Robin jumped back startled.
She stared at him, her eyes wide with disbelief realizing what she
had just done.
Robin's head began to swim and it was as if he had just woken up from
a deep sleep. Images and memories flashed in his mind in succession,
each one containing the girl sitting right in front of him staring at him
with the same clear bright blue eyes he had seen at the supermarket, the
boardwalk, the beach and now here.
"Who are you?" he asked slowly, his mind still not comprehending what
exactly was taking place, "I know you, don't I?"
She shook her head before jumping out of the bed.
"Hey, wait," he said, blocking her way, "You're not going anywhere."
"What's going on?" Dr. Thompkins asked, walking over to them.
The girl pushed the doctor aside and ran away.
"Who was that?" Dr. Thompkins asked.
"You mean you don't know?"
"I've never seen her before," Leslie said, picking up the girl's chart,
"It says here that she was a GSW brought in a few hours ago. She
had an infection from her wound and a fever."
"She wasn't shot," Robin said quietly, remembering her fall on the
pier earlier that day.
"That's odd."
"What?" Robin asked turning to Leslie.
"Oh," Leslie said looking up, "I was just wondering why I was looking
at this chart."
Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!
Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Okay, that's enough.
She stopped pacing, mostly because she was receiving strange looks
from the people on the street. She screwed up, real big. Not
only was she not any closer to finding the nest but now someone had heard
her speak. This was bad, this was very bad. He would remember
her from last night and could ruin everything.
Dammit! This is all my fault. I was sloppy. Careless!
She looked around the street in resolve. From now on, no mistakes,
no mishaps. No mercy. She didn't have the luxury anymore to
discriminate between good and bad. First she'd take down the Scryrithians.
Then, she'd have to kill that boy.
"So how's everything going?"
"Fine," Robin said, rolling his eyes, "Gotham hasn't fallen apart if
that's what you're asking."
"I didn't say that," Bruce said over the speaker phone, "I just wanted
to-"
"Check up on me?" Robin finished, "It's okay Bruce, you can admit.
I'm not surprised, you wouldn't be you if you didn't."
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult," Bruce said.
Robin couldn't see his face but he was sure that his mentor was smiling.
"I'll be fine," Robin assured him, "To tell you the truth. Aside
from a few incidents, it's been pretty quiet around here."
The girl chased the man down an alley, tackling him to the ground.
She turned him over pulled out a gun and sprayed him. He screamed
as the semi-transparent blob oozed out of his ear.
"It's called a water gun," she said, tossing it aside, "You like?"
"What do you want from us?" it asked, oozing slowly away from her.
"Your nest," she said, "The location of the rest."
"Never."
"If not from you," she said, blasting it against the wall until it
disintegrated, "I'll get it from someone else."
She looked down at the unconscious man, his breathing was very shallow.
He was lucky though, he would live, more like him would die. There
was more than she anticipated. Why did they send her to do this alone?
There were too many of them, she wasn't even sure if they were only in
Gotham. She couldn't just take them down one by one. She had
to find the nest and fast.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you that you shouldn't walk around the
streets at night," a voice said behind her.
She turned around and saw four men approaching her with tattoos and
sardonic smiles on their faces. She didn't even want to know what
they were thinking.
Robin made his usual rounds, the night had been like the last, relatively
quiet. He landed on one of the gargoyle's heads of the Gotham Bank
building, surveying the city.
I guess criminals don't think I'm worth breaking the law for.
Suddenly he heard faint screams coming from afar.
Then again…
She threw another one against the wall.
"What are you on steroids, kid," the last man standing asked, pulling
out a knife.
The girl backed up, she didn't have the time to waste on these losers.
As empowering as it was to fight people who didn't have a chance against
her, she had better things to do. He slashed at her with the knife
and she easily dodged it, grabbed his wrist and twisting the knife from
it. She twisted his arm behind his back and slammed his head against
the wall, leaving him to fall to the ground unconscious.
"Who are you?"
She turned around to see the masked boy from the boardwalk standing
there. The masked boy who knew who she was.
"You did all this?" he asked, surveying the five bodies on the floor.
"Oh, only four of them," she said coldly.
"So was the fifth one just scared unconscious?"
She remembered the man who had been taken over by the Scryrithian and
that he needed medical attention quickly. She looked up just in time
to see one of the thugs holding a lead pipe that was about to connect with
Robin's head.
"Look out!" she shouted instinctively.
He turned around instantly and in one fluid motion, ducked out of the
way and pulled out a Batarang, throwing it at the man. At the same
time, a white blast of energy shot out from the side, hitting the man squarely
in the chest so hard that it sent him flying out of the alley into the
street, his lifeless body scraping across the pavement.
"What are you doing?!" Robin yelled, "You could have killed him!"
"Hopefully."
"You're really something," he said with disgust, "Who are you and what
do you have to do with all the strange occurrences going on lately?"
"What strange occurrences?" she asked looking at him strangely.
"The rash of people dying from severe dehydration, the explosion at
the boardwalk, those cops that went psycho-"
"How'd you know about that?" she asked, looking at him more closely.
"What?"
She smiled, "Well, well, well," she said smugly, "If it isn't my beach
boy friend. Looks like I won't have much of a problem after all."
"What are you talking about?" Robin asked worriedly.
"Go home kid before you get hurt," she said, turning to walk away,
"I'll deal with you later."
"You're not leaving until I get some answers," he said grabbing her
arm.
She broke loose of him and slammed him up against the wall, "Listen
up because this is the last time we're going to talk. Your job until
I leave is to stay out of my way. Is that understood?"
"I don't take orders from anyone," Robin said determinedly.
"Well maybe you'll be more cooperative if I ripped your head off with
my bare hands," she said, letting go of him, "Or maybe I should go after
Bruce or Alfred."
Robin used the wall as a springboard to kick her in the solar plexus.
She doubled over and tripped over the leg of one of the unconscious men.
"No one ever threatens my family," he growled in a low scary tone.
"How cute," she said sardonically. Her gaze fell on the man wheezing
for air. He pale emaciated face heaved as if every breath would be
his last.
"He needs help," she said racing over to the man.
"What are you doing?" Robin asked confused.
Before he could receive an answer, she took the dying man in her arms
and disappeared.
"Master Dick? Master Dick?"
"Huh?" he murmured distracted.
"I take it you're not working on a biology project for school," Alfred
said watching Dick engrossed with the microscope.
"This isn't for school, Alfred," Dick said, "I'm analyzing a sample
of…something. I found it in that alley where I met up with that mystery
girl."
"An alley you say?" Alfred asked, getting the newspaper.
"Yeah, why?"
Alfred handed him the newspaper. Dick quickly read the article
about the five men found in the alley. One was taken to the hospital
due to severe dehydration. The other four were suffering from lacerations,
bruises and concussions.
"This was her," he said, pointing to the article.
"Do you think this girl is behind the rash of dehydration attacks?"
"I don't know, she can't be older than I am," he said, "But it's the
only lead I have. I have to follow up on it. Well that," he
turned back to the microscope, "And this."
"What exactly is it?"
"That's the thing," Dick said looking up again, "I have no idea.
I've looked through every book and medical file, it's unlike any life form
anyone's ever seen before. Frankly I don't think-"
"What?"
"I think it's alien."
After changing into another pair of clothes and a shower from the hospital,
she felt refreshed. She was ready and by tonight, she would guarantee
that she would have that alien nest destroyed. Now she'd just have
to find the perfect place to wait. She noticed a large crowd gathering.
What are they talking about, she wondered, going to join the
crowd. She looked up and saw a man climbing a tower. A water
tower.
"When I find out who that girl was, Alfred," Dick said, angrily tearing
into his breakfast, "I'll-"
"Not rant and rave with a mouth full of food?"
"Sorry," he mumbled, swallowing his food, "But…what's that noise?"
he asked looking around.
"Oh yes," Alfred said, walking into the living room, "I left the television
on."
Dick followed him in as they witnessed the scene on the news.
"It seems that there's a man climbing the water tower. He's had
some close calls where he's slipped but he's fine now and is continuing
his climb up the tower. The identity of this man and his motives
for climbing the tower are unknown. It is not certain as of yet that
he is planning to jump off but…"
Dick fazed out the voice of the reporter and he tried to get a better
look of the man climbing the tower. That is, until the camera cut
to the crowd and he caught sight of a familiar blonde.
"That's her!" he shouted pointing the screen, even though the focus
was back on the climber, "That's the girl, she's there," he ran out of
the living room, "Come on. If that's where she is, then I'm going
there to."
Alfred followed him out of the living room, not noticing the static
on the television screen followed by the "Technical Difficulties" screen.
The girl walked out from behind the camera crews.
"Hey, what's going on?" a cameraman shouted, picking up a frayed wire.
She shuffled her way through the crowd, picking up speed once she broke
through. Without hesitation she ran straight for the water tower.
She had to hurry, he was almost there.
Arnold Palmer adjusted his glasses. He'd climbed the last few
rungs of the ladder. He could practically feel the water on his fingertips.
It was becoming difficult just to hold on, he was so weak, almost completely
drained. He grazed his trembling hand over the cover to the water
tower, stopping at the edge to pry it off.
"Finding food to feed your family?"
He slowly turned around. That voice. She was standing there
at the bottom.
"No," he said, struggling to pry the cover off, "I'm so close.
So close!" He began to pound the top, denting it.
She quickly climbed up the tower.
It could feel the pain in the human's emaciated hand, as Arnold pounded
more furiously. He was too weak, he need to be stronger. He
needed the water. He looked down. She was too fast. His
fist finally broke through. It was just within his reach until she
grabbed his leg, pulling him away. He could feel himself moving farther
away from the water, his life-blood, until he hit the ground.
She jumped down, "Weak are we?" she asked approaching him, "It can't
help being out in this hot sun."
Arnold was dizzy. Weak. No! He had to get away.
"You won't harm this human body," he said.
"Is that what they told you?" she asked, picking him up by the neck,
"Because if it is. They lied." She held him over the ledge
of the building.
"You're bluffing!" he shouted fearfully, "You won't take a human life.
An innocent."
"Look in a mirror," she said, throwing him aside, hard on the ground,
"The body's almost completely dehydrated. The man's already dead.
You're all alone now."
She held out her hand and blasted at him, but the blast missed its
target as Robin collided with her, sending them both to the ground.
Arnold quickly got up, jumping off of the roof. The girl got up and
looked around the roof for him. Gone. She ran to the ledge
and saw him trying to get away. Taking a flying leap off the roof,
she landed on her feet not far from him and pursued him on foot with Robin
close behind. Arnold ran towards the building under the tower. Before
he could turn the knob on the door, he was completely disintegrated.
The girl ran to the door to make sure there were no traces of the Scryrithian
left. There were no traces of Arnold left. She sighed and didn't
even have enough time to react to the rope that wrapped around her legs
and pulled her down. She looked up and saw Robin with his hands on
the controlling end of the rope.
"You'd have to be either crazy or stupid to kill a man in broad daylight,"
he said.
She glowered at him and fired a pencil-thin blast at the rope, cutting
it off from his grasp.
"I didn't kill any man," she said calmly, taking the rope off her legs.
"Are you saying I'm seeing things. You're the same girl I saw
last night. The one who threatened to kill me. Or was I just
imagining that too?"
She shrugged and then disappeared out of the rope, reappearing a few
feet away from him.
I hate it when she does that.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Just go," she said, walking away.
"Not until I get some answers."
She grabbed him and threw him to the floor, sitting on top of him,
"Don't you understand how easily I could kill you?"
"I don't think you will," he said firmly.
"You know who I am."
"Well I know I saw you last night in the alley with those five unconscious
men who all ended up in the hospital," he said, "And then I saw just decimate
another man. Literally."
"He wasn't a man," she said, getting up.
"What do you mean?"
"He wasn't a man anymore," she said, "He was already dead. I
just killed the thing inside him."
"What are you talking about?" Robin asked, walking up to her, "Does
this have anything to do with all those people dying of sudden dehydration."
"Even if I could tell you, you wouldn't believe me," she said quietly.
"Try me," he said, "I've seen a lot of unbelievable things. Like
you for one. You're an alien, right?"
She laughed, "Yeah that's right, you've got it all figured out," she
walked away from him, "Listen, just go home and don't get in my way again,
got it?"
"Sorry but it doesn't work like that," he said angrily crossing his
arms, "You have a lot to answer to."
"I don't have to answer anything to anyone!" she shot back, "Especially
not you. Now go back to the Batcave, Dick, before you get in real
trouble."
