Summary: Angel paces, Nightwing fights, and Oracle interferes.
Author's Note: To avoid confusion, all times given are Eastern Standard Time. And once again, couldn't have done it without the helpful beta from Terri.
Disclaimer: Nightwing is owned by DC Comics and Time/Warner; Angel and company are owned by Joss Whedon and 20th Century Fox; this is an original story that does not intend to infringe on their copyright. Constructive feedback is welcome!
Copyright January 2002
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Nightwing/Angel: Shadow Dancing
By Syl Francis
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Los Angeles: Angel Investigations
[Friday 0637hrs EST //Friday 0337hrs PST//]
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Angel nervously paced around the entrance foyer, covering every square inch quickly and often.
"Why doesn't Nightwing call?" he muttered in growing exasperation. About to begin his loop around the entranceway again, he braked to a halt at the first ring. With supernatural speed, he was instantly leaning over his desk, reaching for the phone.
"Angel Investigations."
"I understand you need to contact Nightwing." A strange, automated voice spoke coldly from the other end.
"Yes! Can you help me? It's urgent I speak with him."
"That depends. What is it you wish to--?" The mechanical voice stopped suddenly, and without explanation placed him on hold. Surprised, Angel waited with growing impatience. He checked his watch. It would be sunrise in Bludhaven shortly, which was why he couldn't catch a flight with Wesley and Gunn.
A direct flight would take about five hours, and if they left by four a.m., West Coast time, they'd arrive in Bludhaven by noon East Coast time. Not the best of times for a vampire to arrive in a new town. He'd hoped that Nightwing might help him get to Bludhaven by less conventional means than commercial jet.
Irritated, Angel was about to hang up, when the mysterious voice came back on line.
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Gotham City: Clock Tower
[Friday 0638hrs EST]
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Minutes earlier, when Barbara had been in the middle of a conversation with Angel, Nightwing's emergency beacon overrode her link. Trembling inside, she promptly answered his call.
"Nightwing, this is Oracle! Come in! Dick--!"
"I'm here, Oracle," Nightwing replied, his tone showing signs of strain. "I--!" He stopped. "Hold on a sec--!"
~KERRRRRRRAAAASH!~
Barbara jumped at the unmistakable sounds of battle. It sounded as if the roof were caving in all around Nightwing.
"Sorry, Babs..." Nightwing gasped for air. "The roof sorta caved in on me..."
"Are you okay--?"
"Yeah...for now. Oops--! Gotta go!"
"Dick, your vidlink's down! What's going on over there?"
"Not sure. Some kind of a--I'm not really sure what it is. Real ugly though. Fangs, horns and one big, red bug-eye. Slimy, too." He chuckled suddenly. "You'd think that if they go to all the trouble of cloning something, they'd at least make it attractive."
"'Clone'?" Barbara asked. "Did you say clone? Dick, are you sure?" She waited, but got no response. "Nightwing, come in!" She was met with additional sounds of battle: breaking glass, metal tearing, panicked screams, and more explosions--all punctuated by a deafening, frightening ~ROAR~!
Babs jumped, an icy chill shooting through her. What was that?
"Dick--?" her voice was a bare whisper. "Dick! Oh, please, God...!" Working feverishly to restore her vidlink with Nightwing, Barbara gave a cry of relief when Nightwing's voice came back online.
"Sorry, Babs...had to scoot," Nightwing's voice was short and raspy. "'Ugly' just took out a bunch of security Nazi types. They hit him with everything they had, but he just shrugged 'em all off like flies--! 'Scuse me! Gotta move!"
Barbara heard him in the background, calling out taunts over the monster's bone-chilling shrieks: "Missed me, Ugly! Boy, you're slow! What'samatter, Cyclops? Gotta speed up to come a full stop?"
An angry bellow met Dick's jeers, followed by another a terrific crash.
"Ugly and strong!" Barbara listened in frustration as Dick continued to call out ridiculous barbs at his opponent, and then froze when his tone suddenly changed. "Uh...oh..."
Unable to hold back any longer, Barbara broke in. "Dick! What is it? Tell me what's going on!"
Another crash!
"Dick!"
"Ugly just picked up a console that must've weighed a coupla tons and threw it at me like a child's toy. ::Heh:: Missed me, though. It's kinda slow...probably just a prototype."
Barbara closed her eyes at Dick's casual recitation of what must be a horrific battle raging all around him. Typical, she sighed. She didn't know whether she wanted to kiss him or strangle him.
"Dick, do you need help? I could contact the JLA--!"
"No way!" Nightwing retorted. "This is still my case--and my town. I can handle it! And Ugly, too, for that matter." A sudden deathly stillness came over the air. "Oh, boy." The airwaves suddenly exploded with new violence.
"Dick!" Barbara cried. When she received no answer, she shouted angrily, "Nightwing, report this instant or I'm calling Batman in the next--!"
"Heat vision..." Dick gasped, his tone almost that of lost little boy, one who has just realized that life isn't always fair. "Why did it have to be heat vision?"
"Heat vision?" Barbara whispered. Then MediTech had cloned a creature with Kryptonian DNA. She needed to alert the Justice League A.S.A.P.! About to do so, her eye caught a red blinking light reminding her that she still had a call on hold--Angel! If she called in the JLA--which meant Batman coming to the rescue of his ex-protege--Nightwing might never forgive her. Or, at least, he'd be impossible live with for a while.
But Angel? This case already involved the vampire--or Cordelia, anyway--so Nightwing wouldn't have a legitimate objection to her bringing in Angel Investigations any further. Okay, he might have a problem with it, but that's just too frigging bad!
Making up her mind, Barbara turned back to the line where she still had Angel Investigations on hold, and spoke.
"Do you suffer from seasickness?"
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Los Angeles: Angel Investigations
[Friday 0645hrs EST //Friday 0345hrs PST//]
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"What? Seasickness?" Angel stared at the phone, wondering if he'd heard correctly.
"Do you easily get disoriented or--"
"Disoriented? Well...um, no--"
"--Nauseous in elevators?"
"No! Look, what's this all about--?"
"--Dizzy from great heights?"
"Okay! That's it! Either tell me what this is all about or--"
"Then hold on to your hat, 'cause you're in for the ride of your life!"
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Bludhaven: the Corporate Offices of MediTech
Section 9: Special Projects Unit
[Friday 0645hrs EST]
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Meanwhile, Nightwing was doing everything possible to avoid getting fried. He rolled, executing several consecutive handsprings in a row, and dove behind a bank of monitors. Just in time! The air around him suddenly sizzled and popped as it was superheated by the creature's heat vision. He knew it was a matter of time before his luck ran out.
Overhead, the monitors exploded outwardly in a shower of glass and sparks as the heat beams struck them. Nightwing instinctively covered his head, a deluge of glass, metal, and melting circuits raining all around him.
Why would these idiots clone a monster that they couldn't control? He fumed. Didn't they have a failsafe built into the project?
Wracking his brain, Nightwing mentally ticked off all the Superman countermeasures that Batman had taught him since he was nine:
Kryptonite!
Sorry, must've left the green stuff in my other utility belt! he retorted. Oh, duh! I don't have a utility belt!
Nightwing moved at a low, stealthy crouch from behind the wreckage of monitors and still-smoldering circuitry. A dark shadow lumbering towards him warned him in time. Dick instantly rolled left. The floor tiles where he'd just been hissed as the monster's heat beams struck them.
Come on, Grayson! Think! What else knocks Supes on his red shorts?
Nightwing vaulted over a shelf holding medical instruments, leapfrogging past other laboratory equipment. Heat beams zapped instruments all around him just millimeters away from frying him into a crispy critter.
He dove behind a long row of large, liquid-filled, Plexiglas canisters, tumbling and rolling to avoid getting hit. The monster roared in fury as his quarry escaped yet again. However, Dick barely registered the danger because his attention had suddenly been caught by the dark, bubbling liquid inside the canisters.
A beam sizzling too close for comfort galvanized him into moving again. Shooting out a line from his left gauntlet, he rose instantly, swinging just over the canisters. As he passed overhead, his eyes widened.
Held in cryogenic suspension within the dark liquid were embryos in various stages of development. Releasing his line, he landed on top of one of containers. Leaning over the edge, he took a closer look at the contents.
Ugh! Nightwing grimaced in disgust. Horns! They're cloning more of these things! I've gotta take them out. Instantly readying three Batarangs, Nightwing took a diving leap and gracefully somersaulted as he descended, throwing all three Batarangs almost simultaneously.
Landing easily, he dodged as the monster threw another piece of heavy equipment at him, and then grinned in triumph as the Batarangs hit their target, exploding on impact and releasing the cryogenic container's liquid contents.
The creature's angry roars reminded Dick that he didn't have to time to stay and celebrate, instead, he had to continue trying to come up with a method of taking down a Kryptonian. Okay, no kryptonite for baby. So what else?
Magic! Supes doesn't have any defenses against that! Dick scowled as he ran. Brilliant, Grayson. Of course, I just don't happen to have any spells on me right now. Get serious. Come on, former Boy Wonder--think!!
Lead!
Several heat blasts came at him almost simultaneously. Leaping and spinning in midair, he gasped in pain as he spun into the edge of one of the beams. He'd been struck in the rib area. Landing in a heap, he somehow managed to regain his feet, and holding his injured side, stumbled through the door.
What had he been thinking?
Lead! he recalled. Lead? What good is lead? It can't hurt Superman--! No, but it stops his...his what? Think, Grayson! Lead stops Superman's vision powers! That's it!--The transparent doors! They're made of some kind of lead-based titanium alloy!
Barely able to stay upright, Dick leaned shakily against the corridor wall and started making his way to the exit. The double doors seemed a long way off. He could hear the creature's shrieks and roars as it slowly approached his location. Gritting his teeth, Dick stumbled along determinedly, hunched over in pain.
Behind him, the enraged creature came, crashing through the narrow opening into the corridor. Roaring its displeasure, the monster slammed its fist into the walls, causing the entire corridor to reverberate, and the ceiling above him to suddenly collapse. The creature shrieked in outrage at being 'attacked' on all sides as support beams, electrical wiring and ceiling tiles suddenly rained down on him.
Not daring to look back or slow down, Dick awkwardly released his specialized throwing disks from a hidden compartment in his gauntlet. Pressing a switch on two of the defensive weapons, he turned and threw. Not waiting to see if he'd struck his target, he turned back to continue his seemingly endless trek towards the exit.
Less than an instant later, the zapping sound of a strong electrical charge, accompanied by a nightmarish screech, filled the room.
Gotcha--big, bad, and slimy!
Sneaking a peek, Dick saw the monster weaving and staggering under the high voltage from the disks, which had adhered themselves to the creature as they spent their charge. An eyeblink later, the enraged screech seemed to be closing in from behind.
Still about ten meters from the double doors, Dick again looked back. The special throwing disk's electrical charge had been spent, and now 'Ugly' was lumbering towards him, his arms flailing wildly, his fury escalating.
Readying his two remaining disks, Dick again threw. The disks flew true, but at the last possible second, the creature's heat vision zapped them in mid-flight.
"Oh, boy."
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End of Part 8