Chapter 4: Luck

WAYNE TECH, GOTHAM CITY

SEPTEMBER 03, 19:29 EST

She couldn't believe this was actually happening

Had it happened? Was there even the slightest chance that she hit her head at some point today and she was hallucinating it all? And what the hell was this anyway? A piercing ringing sound was all she could manage to hear and as disoriented as she felt she couldn't be completely sure how real anything was. Damn, that explosion must have rocked her harder than she first thought!

Sprawled on the ground, she groaned as she tried to stand up, only to fall back flat on her face. Ouch. She breathed heavily through her nose to try and get some oxygen to her brain, and after a few breaths she was able to sit up without feeling like she was going to puke. Eyes half closed, she looked around, noticing the half collapsed ceiling and wires protruding from the hole in the wall. The room was dark, lit only by the single surviving lightbulb, which hung swinging on the far end of the lab. Dust pervaded the air making visibility even worse. She realized that the only reason she had survived the blast was because of the overturned lab desk that had blocked her from the worst of it. Finally, some good luck! Peering over the edge, she tried to see if Francis- alien- thing was still there. Hopefully he'd left thinking he'd killed her. No such luck. He was still there, fat tail swinging behind him as his incredibly large wings propelled him off the ground to hover a few inches from the floor. He seemed to be looking for her, and Seble felt a tiny bit of admiration for his dedication towards his task. She smacked herself on the forehead, realizing she was falling into hysteria. She had to get out of there fast and admiring her would-be killer's tenacity wasn't going to help her.

Even as the ringing in her ears quieted down she felt the air in the room charge, setting the hair on her arms on end. Then the whole room lit up as another explosion shook the building, raining plaster and saturating the air with impossibly more dust. She could feel herself choking, and no amount of coughing was clearing her airways. Her eyes stung and she wiped them with the back of her hands, making them worst. Everything was wrong, everything, from the alien looking humanoid to the fact that Francis had somehow turned into one. Oh damn, she was going to die, she was going to die and it was going to be at the hands of a fat alien Francis!

Scrambling on hands and knees, she left the safety of the overturned desk to get ready to make a break for the door. If she could just find someone then maybe they could help her? Hell, anywhere else would be better than staying here. Steeling herself, she watched Francis, hoping for a chance to bolt. As he turned his back to her, she immediately launched herself at the exit, moving faster than she ever had before. She crossed half the room in seconds, dodging scattered equipment, stools and ornamental plants. Now, just a few meters more...

Her lungs couldn't take much more. Seble had never been much of an athlete, being more the kid who ended up getting picked last kinda girl than the kid everyone wants on their team, so she knew she could only keep this up for a few more minutes at best, but finally her goal was in sight, the exit from lab 2. She was just about to reach the door. Extending her hand so as to open the automatic door quickly, praying to God that if he got her through this she'd definitely add a cardio program to her morning to-do list, she added a burst of speed to cover the last meter. Just a few more steps...

But then, unexpectedly, her legs were too weak to hold her up. Stumbling to a stop, Seble now found it a bit too hard to breathe too. Come on, all right she was terrible at running, or any form of exercise for that matter, but she had been so close, why'd she have to stop now? Her breaths came in short gasps which rattled in her chest. Now, she was on her knees. Odd, very odd. She coughed, and something curiously red spattered on the white tiled floor beneath her. Head lolling on her shoulders, it took her a while to focus and realize what that was.

Blood. Her blood. There was more too, coming from her chest. Now how had she not noticed that? She gently pressed a hand on it and it came away with more red. If she could she would laugh. The wound was small and she didn't feel any pain at all; the hit must have deadened the pain receptors in the vicinity of the wound, how kind. She fell and crashed on the floor, gasps coming shorter and shorter as she lay bleeding.

Francis' grotesque body came into view, as if coalescing from the dust and shadows. His green and gold legs took up most of her vision and as she looked up, she saw his large mouth open wide in a sharp toothed grin. How could anyone be so happy to watch someone die? Die? Crap, she probably was right? She fought to keep her eyes open even as strength seeped out of her with every heartbeat. She had to keep him in sight. She didn't know exactly why but something inside her told her not to take her eyes off of the monster. As if sensing her struggle to keep living, he leaned down and gently swept a long clawed finger down her cheek in an almost fatherly fashion. Ashamed, Seble could feel her eyes drooping in comfort as her will shattered. Sleep, sleep would be better, if she could sleep everything would be okay.

"My dear child, it was so unfortunate that you had to see this," Francis' voice was distorted to her ears, as if coming from far away. "Tut, tut, and you were my favorite! So impressionable, so young, so trusting. You shouldn't have strayed and now! Now you'll be leaving all of us, and your little brothers too." No, crap how could she forget? Kevin, Malik! How would they survive without her? She tried to open her mouth, didn't know what she would say but she had to say something. They needed her and she couldn't leave them. Not like her mom and dad had left her to take care of them all on her own. Tears mixed with the grime on her face rolled down her cheeks to fall on the floor, mingling with her blood.

She managed to gasp her first syllable, "Wai-"

But Francis' foot crashed down on her back before she could get the word out, tearing a scream from her throat. She definitely felt that. The pain was agonizing, indescribable, and Seble was definitely sure she'd pass out but before she could Francis grabbed her by her hair and jerked her head upwards. Oh god, she thought, why am I not dead yet?

"Now, now my dear, don't ruin it by talking," His eyes had taken on a mad glint and spittle was flying from his lips which were now set in a fierce smile. "Pardon me but I do so love watching little human children die, the slower the better I always say, so do me a favor and just lie there quietly okay?"

His other hand travelled down her throat and to her collarbone, catching on her amulet. "My, what is this? Such a pretty trinket, I think I'll keep it as a souvenir." Just as he gripped it in his fist, Seble felt another scream tear out of her throat. Her eyes widened in desperation. No, under no circumstances should he take that! She needed it, it was hers, and it was her father's last memento. It was- something, incredibly important to her! Struggling weakly she could only watch helplessly as he tore the amulet from her throat.

She sobbed as her let her go, head thumping on the once white floor, feeling an unexplainable sense of loss. He tied it around his wrist, shouting triumphantly as he pumped his fist in the air.

"My, I simply thought it was pretty, but look! What a strange sensation it gives! Did you know Seble? I believe it is what you humans call magic, but to what purpose?" He returned to her, kneeling once again so that his face was more level with her own. "Is there something more special about you, my dear, than a moderately high IQ?" He ran his fingers through her hair, and this time Seble wanted nothing more than to turn away. All she could manage was another sob but all he did was laugh, raising his arm to better look at her amulet. She wanted it back, more than anything, and this crazy alien freak was going on talking about magic? Even now Francis was walking away from her, probably finally getting ready to leave assured as he was that the girl was definitely at death's door and the bomb would take care of any lingering evidence.

However, even as he turned his back to her something strange started to happen inside her. It began as a pulsating heat stemming from the wound in her chest which then spread to her extremities. Her teeth began to tingle, then ache almost painfully. Francis continued his little victory lap, taking his time leaving the destroyed lab, but Seble couldn't see him. In fact she couldn't see anything as red spots began to dance across her eyes, then finally coalescing into a solid red blanket robbing her completely of her sight.

With her sight gone, Seble felt like her hearing had become keener, as well as her other senses. She felt the hard marble of the floor pressing against her cheek, the slickness of the blood underneath her fingers, felt every rattling breath she took and the tiny shoots of pain that followed, she could hear the quite footsteps approaching her from the west side of the room.

Wait, footsteps?

And just as the thought left her, the owner of the footsteps threw something that whistled above Seble's head at Francis, which must have found its mark because the next thing she heard was the loud squelch of something sharp borrowing into soft flesh. Francis' screamed threatened to burst her ear drums. For someone who was so keen on dealing out pain, he sure couldn't take it very well. Next things she knew a second pair of footsteps came running towards her, even as the first continued their attack on the monster, judging from the small explosions, thumping and many curses she heard.

"Seble? Seble! Hey, hang in there, don't worry, you're going to be okay." Said the mystery male voice. Funny how he knew her name, and she was sure he sounded familiar but right now she didn't care who or even what he was. If he could help her, he could be the damned 'Swamp Thing' and she'd kiss him... Or maybe just shake his hand. Wincing in pain as he agitated her wounds and turned her around, she felt him inject her with something that mere seconds later made the pain around her chest deaden to a dull throb. Now that was some good stuff! A moment later strong arms lifted her up, giving her a feeling of vertigo as she still couldn't see. She felt safe for the first time that entire night but unfortunately the anesthetic did nothing to remove the ache in her bones and teeth. Even though the worst of the pain was gone, a sense of nausea had settled in her stomach and she was sure, definitely this time, she was going to throw-up.

She moaned and lolled her head to the side, dry heaving as she did so. The man gently set her back down on what felt like a bench as she finally managed to empty her stomach of what was mostly bile, seeing as she hadn't eaten much today. The man cooed soft words of comfort, gently brushing her hair back to avoid the worst of it, and once she was finished, he set her back into his arms and carted her off somewhere due west, where the two rescuers had first come from, at an even but fast pace.

She could hear the sound of fighting grow fainter and the choking dust get thinner, and soon she was out surrounded by the brisk September air. If her breathing wasn't so terrible right now she would have enjoyed the feeling more. The man took her further out and she realized that they were still inside the lab, just that the huge wall-to-ceiling windows had been smashed open. The sound of passing traffic reached her ears and she could feel a strong wind wiping her hair about her face. They stopped walking and after a few moments of just standing in there in front of the broken window and the very cold wind, Seble wondered, through her nausea and med-addled brain, whether the man intended to jump out of the window or do something equally ludicrous. It seemed like a silly thing to do but hey, to a girl who should by all medical accounts be dead already anyway, it just seemed like one of those things that could still happen today. Ooh, maybe they'd fly away on a spaceship, or Superman would come and whisk them away to safety! Yep, those meds? definitely some good stuff.

The man was growing impatient, if his rapid foot tapping was anything to go by. Ah, so he was waiting for someone. Someone who would come in through the window? She could only think of two instances where a person would use a window as an entrance: one, they were a fully equipped S.W.A.T team rappelling down from a helicopter, or two, Batman. This was Gotham, so the Dark Knight making an appearance at Wayne Tech wasn't a completely impossible idea and it just seemed like something Batman would do, right? Saving people who are being menaced by an alien and the like.

Sleep was starting to get harder to fight. The dull aches from before were wearing off and the major blood loss wasn't helping her keep awake much either. Just as she felt her head hit the solid chest of the man who was carrying her she heard a distant thrumming, but getting closer at a crazy speed. You would have thought it was a jet, except it was far too quiet to be one. Suddenly a rush of air buffeted her and if she was standing, and thankfully she wasn't, she would have been knocked clean off her feet. The man holding her amazingly stood his ground and after a few seconds more of relentless buffeting and a soft low pitch mechanical whirring, they moved towards it.

"Nightwing, I've brought the med-kit," a young voice spoke. "Do you still need it or is she..."

The voice tapered off. Hell no she wasn't dead! At least, not yet? And what's a 'Nightwing?' The man grunted and hefted her over a boundary, laying her down on soft upholstery. She felt him restrain her torso and legs gently with seat belts and then he was gone, a soft pneumatic 'woosh' sealing her inside the vehicle. She felt the enshrouding darkness more than she could actually see it and not being able to fight it any longer, she finally slipped into a deep sleep.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Nightwing was, needless to say, very troubled by what he had just seen.

Placing Seble gently inside the Batmobile he shook his head as Robin offered him the med-kit again. It wasn't needed and this was part of the reason for his troubles. From what he knew about her, her background checks and the genome mapping mandated by Wayne Enterprises for all their employees at Wayne Tech, he hadn't even suspected that she had a hyper-regenerative ability. Granted, he had only looked into her files today but the checks were comprehensive and inclusive. If she had an ability of some sort he thought he would have picked up on it, seriously, it was right under his nose!

Regardless he was grudgingly glad for it; at least she wasn't going to die from that horrible chest wound. Once he was sure she was secure he stepped away, letting Robin return to the driver's seat and the door close.

"Be careful Robin. She's healing but is still in a delicate condition. Take her to the Batcave and ask Alfred to clean and dress her wound, if it's still there by the time you get there... Don't ask questions now, I have to get back to Batman," he hesitated, then decided to tell the kid to go home. Batman would just send him away right off without an explanation anyway. He put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't bother coming back for now, I think we have things under control but keep me updated on her condition."

Robin raised a skeptical eyebrow but nodded anyway, the dismissal obviously bothering him more than he let on. He turned towards the console on the dashboard and typed in a few commands. "Fine, ok I'll babysit. But I'm coming with you on your next mission; Batman never lets me tag along on any of the good ones anymore." He complained as the Batmobile revved ready to take off.

"Robin you need to go! I don't have time for idle chatter at the moment!"

"Fine whatever, I'm going. At least I can drive the Batmobile. That's sweet"

The window hissed up and in seconds they were speeding off over the city scape before Nightwing could retort. He took this as a cue to immediately run back to the action, hoping that his previous assessment still held true. As he neared the battle site he noticed the lack of noise. Had Batman won? Ducking behind a wall by the entrance to lab 2, he peeked into the room and sure enough the Dark Knight stood towering over the subdued alien.

Nightwing strode in, making both Batman and the alien look up as he entered. The thing was disgusting to look at to say the least and the damage it had wrought on his own, as well as the level of intelligence behind its actions, was disturbing. He hoped they'd finally get some answers now.

"Were you able to get it to talk?" He asked Batman.

Batman was typing something into his wrist communicator and didn't look up as he replied. "No, unfortunately all it seems to do now is growl and occasionally shoot out what looks to be minor laser beam from its mouth. An improvement from its earlier behavior, but unhelpful nonetheless."

"Can I try?"

"Be my guest. But be careful, we still don't know the full extent of his abilities."

Nightwing nodded and looked down at the extraterrestrial, a broad feral smile on his face. "So, ugly, why not make things easier on yourself? Tell us who you're working for, what your link to Lexcorp is and why you're doing this and maybe I won't turn you in to the Green Lantern corp," he crouched down in front of it. "And we both know what the Green Lanterns are doing to illegal aliens found on Earth lately."

The alien stopped its loud growling. Ha, maybe he scared it! Perhaps Nightwing had succeeded where Batman had failed? But then the creature started to giggle, rising in volume as it grew into a full blown hysterical fit.

"Oh, oh," he moaned. "How pathetic! The Green Lanterns? And what do you think those glorified space cops could ever do against Him? What harm could they bring to His will? Do you think that anyone of you could stand a chance against the terror that is coming for you? You are all hopeless!"

"Who's Him?"

"You will know it. You will know it boy, for it will be the last thing you'll hear before your death."

"Right, right, a threat from a trussed up alien with very few options left, color me terrified. Just, make it easier on yourself and answer my question."

"Ok, and how about you answer one of mine and we can do some quid pro quo, hmm? Tell me, how is my little Seble? Did she die as you carried her away? Did she die in your arms? Oh, how sweet she was, thinking she could get away right before-"

Nightwing struck it across the face, making the alien fall hard on its side. Yeah, it was baiting him, but the rage welling up inside him needed an outlet, and this piece of crap was asking for it.

"Now you listen to me you dragon-pig freak with wings!" Nightwing hissed as he grabbed the alien by the neck and drew him in. "I could do whatever I want to you and no one would say a god damn word for an animal like you." He liberated a hand to detach a bird-a-rang from his utility belt, which he held up to the creature's throat. "I can slit your throat open right now and watch you take hours to die from the blood loss and you know what? I think my conscience is okay with that. So, how about you," he emphasized by jabbing the bird-a-rang in the alien's chest. "Quit goading me and tell me what I want to know and I," he gestured to himself. "Scrape up the last vestiges of my humanity and try so very hard to keep myself from using you as my own personal stress ball."

He hadn't known Seble that well, but Batman had been right, she was just a kid, two whole years younger than him, and this... thing was actually taking pride in what it did? He had spent quite a few evenings with her and the overtime staff over at lab 16, sometimes supervising projects or drinking coffee. At least that was before Wally's... disappearance. They had been a great bunch of people, albeit a little reclusive and socially awkward... and the fact that almost half of them had turned out to be traitors. And to top it all off she just had to be the one to find the alien in the labs on the same day she was fired from her post at Wayne Tech. Talk about bad luck.

Scowling at the pain radiating from his fist he stepped away, allowing a disappointed looking Batman to take the lead once again in the interrogation.

"I have a transcript of your telephone conversation with an unknown contact at Lexcorp, discussing classified Wayne tech technology, plus an inordinate amount of invoices ranging between $2.5-7 million passing between yourself and, again, Lexcorp. I know you've been impersonating the deceased Francis Patrick for the past 2 years,"Nightwing flinched almost imperceptibly. Deceased? Shit, what else had Batman not told him yet? "And that unlike the more simplistic Kroloteans or the power hungry Reach you have a much keener intellect and ability to mimic human characteristic both emotionally and physically, yet all I want to know from you today is why." That must have been the longest speech he had heard Batman speak to a prisoner of his ever. He usually kept to one word, maybe sometimes a sentence, of questioning. Unfortunately his speech fell on death ears, or perhaps fanatical ones would be a better description.

"He will come, and your pitiful human squabbles will be meaningless before him..." It was the only understandable sentence he could make out before the alien began babbling in an otherworldly tongue. He had a feeling they wouldn't be getting anything more out of this one.

He sighed and stood up, patting some dust off of his thighs as he did so. "We should contact Green Lan-" He began.

"Already on his way. We are wasting time here. We need to go and find this alien's human handler." Batman turned, already striding away.

"Yeah, no way this thing was able to infiltrate Wayne Tech all on its own." As Nightwing turned to follow suit, he noticed the sudden silence that had fallen over the room. Batman had stopped in front of him too, head turned just a fraction back towards him. He turned around facing the alien. It was sitting upright, body quivering softly with the omega symbol on his chest glowing a fierce white. What was it doing?

"Batman something's wrong here." Nightwing said. But even as he spoke the creature started to glowing a harsh bright light all over and a piercing shriek split the air. Nightwing groaned and covered his ears. Luckily his mask had blocked out the increased light intensity but his ears still suffered enough from the noise. It threatened to rupture his eardrums and he began backing away, disoriented by the confusion. He almost fell down on a piece of debris but Batman was quick to catch him and, turning him around, dragged him across the room, hurtling towards the blown in windows. As they reached the room were minutes earlier Nightwing was handing over Seble to Robin, Batman grabbed him by the waist and jumped out of the window, just as the alien cried out something unintelligible and a gigantic explosion obliterated the Wayne Tech building.

-0-0-0-0-0-

The explosion had flung them both far from Wayne Tech but luckily neither was injured too badly. Nightwing groaned as he lifted a large piece of concrete from his leg. He coughed, finally noticing a motionless Batman lying face down beside him unmoving. After a brief moment of panic Nightwing checked his pulse. He sighed in relief as he found it, and satisfied that his mentor was alive and would continue to do so for the next 15 minutes, he checked his surroundings. They were in the building opposite Wayne Tech, the train station, which, thankfully, had survived the worst of the blast. He activated a tracking beacon built into his suit so that Green Lantern would be able to find them down here once he arrived. But that had been some explosion, and it was unlikely that the alien itself had survived it. He didn't know if he was glad or annoyed that his only lead was gone. He checked his suit; fortunately most of his more complex tech had survived the impact.

"Computer playback the last 5 minutes of audio." He spoke. His in built personal computer system picked up the command and replayed the recording. Static, the most of it, but he knew he had heard something at the end, just before the explosion. "Computer, block out all high frequency sound waves and locate and isolate the alien's voice by cross-referencing with past conversations."

It took a few tries more but finally Nightwing found what he was looking for. He frowned. Odd, the recording only added more questions to his growing list of 'what the hell was going ons?' He hoped Green Lantern would arrive soon, as the sooner he got back to the Batcave the sooner he could get to work figuring this out, and the sooner he did that the faster he could get back to Wally's case.

"What did you find?"

Nightwing, startled out of his thoughts, turned sharply at the direction of the sound but sighed in relief as he realized that it was only Batman. The Dark Knight stirred beside him and sat up, shaking his head as if disoriented. Nightwing helped him sit up and noticed his mentor was having trouble breathing.

"Are you okay Bruce?" He asked. Gently, he prodded his chest, pulling back as Batman winced when he found the broken rib.

The Dark Knight scowled at Nightwing's flagrant use of his civilian name and shrugged him off, extracting a hypodermic needle full of a cocktail of anesthetic and a little something extra from his utility belt which he immediately injected himself with. "What did you find?" He stressed every word, the pain allowing annoyance to leak into his voice, breaking his otherwise cool and unshakable demeanor. Nightwing sighed again. As usual, with this man work always came first.

"Why don't you hear for yourself?"

He played the recording. After a few minutes of pounding boots and labored breathing (from their escape) the alien's words came out as clear as crystal, high and hysterical.

"For Darkseid!"

A short silence followed, as the former dynamic duo deliberated the information that they had just found.

"The alien must have been some sort of fanatical suicide bomber, working for this Darkseid." Dick began the dialogue, trying to stand up. He thought he could hear someone shouting his and Batman's name. Good, luckily his leg wasn't broken. Sprained his ankle, but not broken.

"The explosion was obviously it, due to the extreme heat, light, noise and vibrational energy that it was giving off before the detonation." Batman continued. The voices were clearer now and they could both hear Hal Jordan's voice coming from the ceiling. Soon a green construct of an excavation digger pierced through the ceiling, clearing the surrounding rubble before Hal himself descended down towards them, crying out in triumph at having found them. Nightwing looked towards Batman who still sat looking straight ahead at the ruins of the now destroyed platform 7 of the Midtown train station.

"Then the priority now is this, find out who the hell this Darkseid is."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Who is Darkseid indeed? Find out in the next chapter of Apocalypse! And herein is the chapters end, hope you all enjoyed it :)