172. Hand and Dagger part 9
CLANG!!!!
Sparks flew.
Robin pressed his staff forward.
Dagger effortlessly resisted with two thin blades.
Robin gritted his teeth.
Dagger's brow barely furrowed.
They 'struggled' for a good five seconds until Dagger shoved up hard against Robin's weight.
Robin jumped back, coiled, and sprang forward with a high swipe of his staff towards Dagger's skull. "RAAUGH!!!"
Dagger swiftly bent back, ducked the swing, and stood up.
Robin swung the staff down low.
Dagger lifted his foot.
CLAP!!!
The heel of his shoe blocked the staff.
THWUMP!!!
He slammed his foot down and pinned Robin's weapon to the ground.
Robin yanked vainly at the blade.
Dagger applied his weight to the blade, flexed his legs, and spun with a jump kick slamming across Robin's face.
WHAM!!!
The Boy Wonder stumbled back.
Dagger leaned back, twirled his knives, and jabbed forward quick as the wind and just about as silent.
THWISSH!!
Robin leapt to the side.
Dagger's right knife slid between Robin's jumpsuit and his skin. When the villain yanked the blade away, it snapped off Robin's communicator.
Robin teetered to his right.
The communicator went airborne.
Dagger twirled his knives, spun nimbly, and kicked the communicator straight into Robin's face. Crack!!
THWAP!!
"Nnggh!!" Robin stumbled dizzily towards the edge of the rooftop.
Somehow, Dagger ended up behind him. He stood up as if from a huge leap and elbowed the Boy Wonder hard in the square of his back.
WHUMP!!!!
"Augh!!" Robin stumbled forward.
Dagger twirled his blades, twirled his body, and jabbed both knives at once into Robin's shoulders.
Suddenly, Robin growled, leaned forward, and lifted his staff over his head.
CL-CLANK!!!!
Robin blocked the stabs. He pulled the staff towards the back of his neck, locking Dagger in place by his grip on the blades.
Dagger struggled to get loose.
Robin sneered towards the rooftop gravel. "I can be quick too, pal…….RRRGH!!!" Robin yanked his staff away, reverse walked up Dagger's chest, flipped forward, spiraled in mid-air, and came down in a squat…upon which he swung his staff down low. "YAAAUGH!!!"
THWAP!!!
Dagger was tripped. He fell on his rear--
WHAM!!! Robin side-kicked the sprawling body of the despot.
Dagger flew back. But he flipped and landed on his feet, sliding agilely in reverse.
Robin charged him, twirling his staff. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! "RAAAAUGH!!!!" He jabbed his rod like a missile into Dagger's chest.
Dagger swung his left left dagger in an upwards arc.
CLANK!!!
He deflected Robin's staff up and the boy's arm in tow.
GRIP!!!!
Dagger's knife-free finger grabbed Robin's wrist and held his arm up.
His right hand grazed Robin's ribs with the knife. SLIIINK!!!
"Aaugh!!" the Boy Wonder twitch.
WHUMP!!!! Dagger kneed him in the chest.
Robin lost his breath.
Dagger twirled his right knife, effortlessly flicked it down his sleeve, closed his right fingers together, and karate chopped Robin's shoulder.
THWAP!!!
"!!!!!!" Robin writhed.
Dagger's right forearm then pivoted left, uppercutting his elbow across Robin's face.
WHAM!!!
With the same right arm frozen solid, he bitch slapped Robin to the floor while finally letting go with his left fingers.
THRUMP!!! Robin tumbled to a coughing, sputtering pile on the rooftop.
Silence.
Dagger stood, his arms frozen in position for a few seconds. He finally cracked his right knuckles, flicked the knife out, and turned to face the fallen boy. "I'm waiting for you to be 'quick'…," the man droned.
Robin coughed and winced, clutching the bleeding cut on his left side.
Dagger slowly walked around him. Distant explosions and pillars of smoke erupted in the cityscape beyond him and the rooftop.
"That's the problem with being as young as yourself. You see 'fast and furious' as an effort, not an artform. You think finally resorting to dropping those Dragonflare victims in cold blood gives you an edge? I started killing at age ten, Robin. You don't understand what it feels like. You think you do, but you don't. It's like being born. Breaking through the eggshell that is life and realizing that all that remains beyond the white enamel is blissful oblivion. You aren't perfect, Robin. Because I know you can smile. I've seen it."
Robin hissed, curling on the rooftop. "I'm not….a m-merciless killer….like y-you…."
"And that….is why you lose," Dagger uttered emotionlessly. He twirled his knives. He dashed over.
Robin tried to get up.
WHAM!! WHACK!!! SMACK!!! Dagger rapidly hit Robin so that the Boy Wonder could rise to his feet just right from the impacts and---SL-SLINK!!! Dagger grazed his other side twice with his blade.
"AAUGH!!" Robin clutched his other side and stumbled back against the frame of the stairwell door. He panted and heaved. Bleeding.
"You think you can beat me?" Dagger droned, standing before the Boy Wonder. "I cannot be defeated, Robin. I am older than sin."
"I won't l-let you have this City…," the Boy Winder painfully hissed.
"Won't you?" Dagger leaned his head to the side. "And I'm guessing you assume it's yours? I built this City, Robin. Its very existence owes its legitimacy to me and me alone."
"This City….," Robin frowned. He struggled to stand up straight and hold out his metal staff. "….was not built on slime."
"Poetic," Dagger breathed. He paced coldly around the Boy Wonder, never losing his eyemask. "True, this City was never made true by transient things. That's where people like the Titans and Slade failed to tame this world. The Titans believe in justice. Slade believes in evil."
"And just what the Hell do you believe in, Dagger?" Robin spat, aiming his staff at him. "What do you believe in that makes killing HUNDREDS OF LIVES WORTH IT?!?!"
"This City was founded on blood, Robin," Dagger exhaled. He stopped pacing and twirled his daggers. "And today, it shall be redeemed by blood. Your blood." SWOOOOSH!!! He pounced.
Robin braced himself.
Dagger was upon him. THWOOOSH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!!
Robin ducked with a gasp. He slid under Dagger's parted legs, hopped up, spun, and swung his staff around to crush Dagger's back.
Dagger jumped the rod, ran up the stairwell's frame, flipped off, and seemingly produced a dozen concealed knives from his jacket which he promptly tossed at Robin in rapid succession while somersaulting in midair. TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSSH!!!
Robin's eyemask widened. He leaned back, gritted his teeth, and spun his rod.
CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!
Deflected knives went flying.
Dagger landed. He tossed one blade up and caught it in his teeth. He ran towards Robin, and while sprinting he spread two fingers out from the knives he was already holding and caught two of the deflected ones. When he was halfway towards Robin, he spun like a tornado and tossed the four blades at spontaneous moments at the Boy Wonder.
Robin failed to predict when and from where the blades were coming, and before he knew it…four knives were pinning him by his cape to a metal t.v. antenna behind him. CLANK!!! CLANG!!! THUNK!! CLANK!!! Robin struggled in vain to get loose.
Dagger stopped spinning, grabbed the last blade from his teeth, and jabbed it from the length of his arm into Robin's throat.
SWOOOOSH!!!
Robin winced.
Silence.
Robin breathed.
The blade stopped a bare millimeter from piercing his Adam's apple.
The Titan leader trembled and struggled for breath, stuck the antenna, the evil despot holding him at death's length.
"……..," Dagger stared. Unemotional. His lips moved like water sliding down a granite tombstone. "Your treehouse party has ended, Titan. Time for you to grow up."
"'Grow up'??" Robin wheezed, trying not to breathe too much through his neck and end up tasting the dagger. "You tell me to grow up right before you gut me to death? Isn't that a little bit corny?"
Dagger's cold eyes narrowed. "You actually think I can kill you?"
"………..," Robin looked at the man.
"I only want the City, Robin," Dagger slurred. "I only want back that which was mine. That's what Triangular was made for. We regain that which we lost since the last time the Balance of Morals was challenged. But your deaths…oh no. The Parasite won't allow that. I am not your reaper, Robin. Sooner than you think…you will see that."
"You're nuts."
"And the Messenger was too, I suppose?"
"………….."
"The Messenger once told the smoking pile of guts that is now your Commissioner that he knew people. Well, I know people too, Robin. I know him. And I know the Titans. And I know that you won't stand a chance once the real guillotine falls."
As the cold conversation went on, Robin slid an expert, hidden glove towards the back of his utility belt. "I don't believe you. After ripping this City to shreds…you've got the audacity to say that you never meant to kill us?"
"Oh, I meant to kill, Robin. The fact that I live reinforces my wielding of death…," the Commissioner hissed. "But the Titans….no….in the end you'll all have to learn what you must truly be afraid of. Is it the hand? Or is it the dagger?"
"………..," Robin breathed slowly. His gloved hand slid a smoke pellet out of the back of his belt.
"The hand, Robin….," Dagger breathed. "You must fear the hand. But…for today…..it will be the dagger that divides."
"Yeah….," Robin frowned. "Whatever you say…."
"And indeed I do say…," Dagger pressed the blade up to Robin's throat. "Triangular. The Parasite. They are pieces of a great, bloody whole. This pretty world of use must turn crimson some way or another. And for the sky to turn red….," Dagger's eyes narrowed. "The earth must bleed. I've got a lot of carving to do, you see."
"I like the sky the way it is," Robin grunted.
THWOOOSH!! He threw the smoke pellet to the rooftop.
PIFFFT!!!
Dagger gritted his teeth and stepped back as his face was flooded with smoke. He disappeared into the steam.
Robin yanked the knives out without a second to loose. Freed from the antenna, he leapt out across the rooftop, scooped up his staff, and knelt in a ready position.
"………….," he glared through the cloud of smoke.
The synthetic fog cleared….but Dagger was gone.
In his place was a square device on the floor.
A square device beeping with a countdown timer.
9……8……7……6……
Robin gasped.
From some omniscient source, Dagger's voice droned echoingly: "What will it be, Robin? The hand or the dagger?"
Robin spun around.
He ran towards the ledge.
5……4……3……
"It matters little which choice. The sky will turn red. The Earth shall bleed. Triangular will reclaim its precious meat."
Robin dove acrobatically over the rooftop with his grappling hook.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Wincing, I stumbled out of the dumpster on the bottom of the apartment courtyard.
I clutched my bleeding thigh.
Wincing from other cuts in my body.
Hobbling with Myrkblade.
Where……is Robin??
"NOIR!!!"
I gasped. I spun around--
WHUMP!!!
He scooped me up and swung the two of us across the courtyard and over the desperately fleeing people. "BRACE YOURSELF---"
BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
The gray apartment building exploded from the top down, sending fragments flying left and right, showering the courtyard, and sending a thunderous noise spilling throughout the northeast district of the City as the structure collapsed to ashes and dust.
Robin set me down.
We both could barely stand.
Panting.
"…….."
"…….."
He looked up at me.
I looked wearily at him.
He swallowed and said: "I get this strange feeling that things just got worse."
I whimpered mutely.
W-Worse???
"Come on…," Robin limped and motioned. "Let's get these people somewhere safe."
I nodded tiredly and walked along with him.
"Then we must….somehow…rejoin with the other Titans. Start out on a good foot."
I glanced back at the smoldering ashes we flanked the large group of citizens…escorting them westward towards the warehouse complexes.
"The earth's not going to bleed. Not on my watch."
I looked at him, an eyebrow raised over my shades.
The Hell are you talking about??
He didn't respond.
We trudged onward.
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
"…………," Dagger stared at the smoldering remains of the apartment building from across the street.
Two relatively sane looking henchmen stood in the shadows of a nearby building next to him.
"Wh-What now, sir?" a subordinate asked. "Our experts say that it'll be another twelve hours before the Dragonflare effects wear out."
Dagger took a deep breath. "We don't need twelve hours. What we need….is the Titans to truly recognize the gravity of the threat at hand here."
"And what of Red Aviary?" another asked.
"He's here….," Dagger's eyes scanned the skyline. "Right now….as everything burns around us….he is here….."
The henchmen shifted nervously. "Sh-Should we be worried?"
Dagger stared at them. "Do you fear death?"
"…………"
"Do not count yourselves as eternal…," Dagger droned. "Not yet."
"We await your orders, sir."
Dagger twirled a knife nonchalantly. "Issue a command to the launchpad: Target the hospital. Everyone alive in this City is flocking to that spot. Wipe it off the face of the Earth."
"Right away, sir."
Dagger asked: "And Phaser Labs. How is that position holding out?"
"Ready for your mark."
"Don't give them the go yet," Dagger said. "Wait a little longer."
"For what, sir?"
"For when the Labs becomes twice as valuable….which—with the launchpad operational—I have a feeling the Labs will get a new piece of junk to work on. Now….," Dagger marched briskly down the road. "Let us hurry to the Southeast."
"Wh-What's in the Southeast District, sir?"
"A fish out of water."
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Tempest walked out of the subway entrance first.
He cautiously looked around.
The streets were empty.
Tossed about with rubble and heaps of damaged urban structures.
His dark eyes narrowed as he inhaled.
Lindsay and another citizen walked up besides him….and they gasped.
"Dear Lord…..," Lindsay murmured. "What h-happened here??"
Tempest took a deep breath. "Dagger happened."
"Huh??"
"Come on…," Tempest pointed down the long road. "The hospital is within view. We'll do this in trips, since I'm the only Titan here to give protection. Let's get your blonde friend to the health facility first. Quickly…without a moment to lose…."
Lindsay signaled for the first ten urban spelunkers to move ahead, and—with Tempest leading the way—the group of people walked vulnerably across the abandoned warzone. Antoine and Jack were among them, along with the nurse and the wincing Bonnie.
Lindsay, Lillian, and the rest watched pensively from behind…in the shadows of the subway entrance.
In the shadows….
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
In the middle of the City, a missile launcher rested, aimed towards the sky.
One of the operators had his head to a radio communicator. He talked to someone on the other end, nodding his head. At a signal, he waved his arm energetically at another worker.
A salute.
Another salute.
People motioned and people ran to their positions.
The hacker at the controls nodded and performed a keystroke.
Twenty lights on the launchpad turned bright.
The missile launcher whirred to life, tilted upwards a few extra degrees, and began to steam…..