223. A Hard Act to Follow part 8
Elsewhere…
On the outskirts of Gotham City…
Inside a run-down apartment…most likely abandoned…
Lit by a ring of tiny candles edging two hastily assembled cots and mini laptop stations…
A hand was flipping a coin. But it was not a gnarled, mutated hand belonging to a vicious underground criminal. But rather a pale, petite thing with expert digits flicking the coin upward and upward and flexing expertly to catch the item on the downfall.
After twenty successive flips, the hand finally clasped over the coin, paused, and opened it up before a pair of thin, pink cat-eyes.
"……..," Jinx blinked. Then exhaled. "Heads forty-times in a row….," she murmured. She gazed out a distant, red-tinted window peering out into night. "Heh…..what are the 'odds'?"
Silence.
The short-haired sorceress stood up. She wore the tell-tale signs of someone post-bedridden. There were lines formed in her skin from lying sideways in tangled sheets. A sort of bleariness surrounding her pink eyes. And an extra thinness to her already lithe figure, as if fasting had become a way of life for the last week. Clad in a long, hanging t-shirt, she shuffled across the shady apartment flat and stood before a half-boarded window. She turned the coin around and around in her hands and gazed out at the southwest wasteland of runoff, urban Gotham City. The dilapidated buildings and dust-ridden suburbs were once sprawling, sunlit communities. But now they were merely a stretch of impoverished detritus connecting Gotham City's southern region via rusted capillaries to the cancerous, banal Bludhaven. It was a place Jinx didn't want to be. And yet there was Red Aviary nesting in Gotham City, a person she didn't want to see. The pink witch was strung halfway between two ugly fates. A past and a future. And in the present, she needed her balance. But she felt oh-so-very alone at the moment.
"Faye…Fiona….," she murmured into the cold November wind shifting in through the wooden boards. "I wonder if you two are better off than I am now….."
She flipped the coin.
It rose.
It fell.
And just as her palm snatched it, the tattered curtains of the next window down the room billowed.
Jinx looked over, not bothering to see which side of the coin landed up. She pivoted and planted her hands on her hips. "Well? How did it go, Leslie?"
The curtains billowed again. A cascading flush of golden-platinum light shimmered in a column, giving way to a blonde assassin. A very disheveled, breathless blonde assassin. The tell-tale signs of a battle (a battle without victory) bathed her body.
Jinx's jaw dropped some. "Great Hecate!" She rushed over and grasped one of Pulsade's shoulders. "What happened?"
Pulsade muttered, her blue eyes thin. "Bloody Noir happened…."
Jinx blinked. "Well, I can see that. But…jeez! I thought you had the ball dropped on him! Ghost Boy is godly…but not that godly!"
"Don't be a Yank and rub it in…," Pulsade shrugged Jinx off and walked mopingly towards the cots. "…this evening has met its fine end in the lavatory. Need I say more?"
"Are you upset that I couldn't be there?" Jinx frowned, her arms folded. "You saw me during the trip here, Leslie! I can barely walk-straight still after what that poopy-headed asian kid did to me! 'Paralyzed for two weeks' my fanny! Pfft! Hecate Almighty, if only I could have been there. We both would have clobbered the Ghost Boy. I know it!"
"No we wouldn't have, Jean…," Leslie slumped down onto a cot and started discarding her heavy guns, equipment, and concealed weapons off of her body. All except one or two, of course. Model assassin. "…it's been proven far more clearly than the crystal ball of your Hex that going fisticuffs one on one with Red Aviary is just not our lot in life. I don't know what that bloke has, but there's more to Noir than just a sword and dashing looks. Bullocks, how does someone that suicidal last so much as a day in this City? With Red Aviary breathing down his neck of all things?" Pulsade gripped at her golden hair, hunched over, and moaned. "I do not know what to do anymore, Jean. I simply…..d-do not know what to do anymore…."
"Still….I hate myself….," Jinx sighed and ran a hand through her uber-short pinkness. "I hate being so weak. Especially when you of all people need me, Leslie. You…needing me."
"Much blooming good a side-comment or a tittering joke would have done against the face of badarseness…."
"Hey!" Jinx pouted. "I'm more talented than that, ya know! I'm no Harley Quinn!"
Leslie suddenly looked sick. Perhaps it was the Briton's attempt at 'smiling'. She said: "It still would have been rather evenly matched. Noir happened to have a cat up his sleeve. A catWOMAN, to be exact."
"You've got a 'cat' too…on occasion…," Jinx smiled and girl-stepped over to stand before Pulsade. After a while, her smile faded. "Leslie….don't fret. Please. We can try again. I…I-I'll start practicing to get my limbs and hex back in order. You can help me train for a few hours, th-then we'll both go out and try to track Noir down again! I promise I won't fall down on you in battle. Besides…I-I think I feel my strength coming back to me! My powers too! I just made this coin land heads eighty times in a row! How's that for promise?"
"That's just it, Jean….," Pulsade murmured. She rested her face in the palm of an exhausted hand. "I do not believe it is Noir that we must seek after all. Red Aviary may or may not consume him. Face it…that Asian bloke and Michael were both trying to teach us the same lesson in two different ways. It was never our place to be Counter-Red Aviary. But….I still believe with all of my heart that there is one person we must attend to. And, quite frankly, she is far more important than Noir will ever be. With what is to come….with the way the world and its trailing energies of fate are trailing down into some celestial shower drain in the sky." She parted a few fingers and glanced through them upwards at Jinx. "That is the extent of your vision, yes?"
"In a funky translation, sure…," Jinx simpered. "Terra is as important as she has always been. But I thought that Noir…."
"I don't believe he's the key that we both have seen him as…," Pulsade said. "He's part of the war, yes. But right now, he's fighting an entirely different battle. It's not our place to deal with him. Not here in Gotham. We should be where Terra is. That's where the true direction of the War is going."
Jinx sat cross-legged on the floor before Pulsade and hugged herself. She glanced aside, sighing. "……..," her pink eyes blinked. "….Terra could be anywhere in this world. And though the Earth may be a small place…what's to keep an 'Earth Maiden' from hiding in her very own element?"
"You're tuned to the energies that dominate this landscape, Jean," Pulsade boredly said. "Can't you….I don't know….sense Terra's Earth-energies? Fateful connections? Movement traces? Bob's your uncle?"
Jinx bit her lip. "I….I-I could if she was in the room….maybe in the vicinity. I'm just….n-not quite as strong as she is, ya know?"
"I can speculate…."
"Noir…..that Ghost Boy has some ability to….I dunno….," Jinx gestured in the air. "….he can sense stuff. Not like I can…but kinda sorta like I can at the same time. I know most of the times when he's in the same building. Heh…I-I can even feel him now. More or less. Way across Gotham City. All the time we were in Las Vegas, I never felt Terra. I always assumed it was because she as in stone, but…."
"Area 51…," Pulsade uttered. "The place was blown to rubbish shortly before Noir's eastward trek. Not just by anyone…but by one of Luthor's ion cannons, incidentally enough. When we brushed by Lexcorp in Metropolis, it turned out that the smoking Titan had come and gone. And he was alone at the time. I deduce that Terra was dropped off…..somewhere. Somewhere between Area 51 and Metropolis. We know enough about Noir's trek to say just that….but far too little to think of anything else. By God….if we only had that little blonde sod to help us out with this…."
Jinx pouted with a sigh. "I'm worried about J. I never thought I would be this much. But the little munchkin grows on you, doesn't he?"
"If it raises your flag, love…."
Jinx stuck her tongue out.
"I take it that it's next to impossible for you to seek out and find Terra with your hex sensitivity dealing only with those bare bullocks facts?"
"Leslie…," Jinx held her hands up in emphasis and gestured: "Imagine this really…bigass haystack. Like…the size of the U.S. Midwest….Louisiana Purchase and such fluff. Now….pretend there's a needle digging its way down into that haystack. Kay? Now….pretend that the very same haystack is anorexic and just as golden-blonde as the rest of the hay straws…."
"A simple 'I can't find Terra for us' would have sufficed, Jinx."
"I wish I could help, Leslie….I really do….," Jinx hugged herself again. She looked aside. A few seconds…a few heartbeats…and her eyebrows rose. "….however."
Leslie blinked.
Jinx looked up. "According to those you interrogated on the way through Metropolis, a few nutcases actually dropped some of the shipment making its way into Gotham City….righto?"
"Righto…."
"And if that shipment really…..REALLY contained the 'essences' of Terra….then…."
"Then what?"
"If I-I was to get a hand on one of those essences….those vials….I-I might be able to get a reading then."
Pulsade's eyes thinned. "You might be able to…tell where Terra is?"
"Erm….," Jinx nervously scratched the back of her neck and stammered: "Terra's power is so….so earthen. It's such a concentrated, inhuman elemental hybrid of Fate, Stone, and a little bit of Noir's talents mixed in….even if Terra doesn't realize it. Such a crazy combination would be unlike anything I normally run into. If I got a hold of some…just a little bit of it, I couldn't even begin to guess what huge effect that may have. I could find Terra in an instant or…."
"Or what?"
"I could overload from the sensation….and k-kinda sorta die."
"………….."
"Leslie….," Jinx leaned forward and earnestly spoke. "If you have any clue as to where some of this stuff could have been dropped on the way here to Gotham, it's imperative that we find it. Ghost Boy may be keeping Red Aviary occupied for the moment. But at some time or another, either Death Incarnate or the Titans themselves are going to be flocking to Terra. At that point, she'd be far out of our reach. And….well….how will we ever come close to tracking down the Gaia Sphere if Mother Earth is gone?"
"…………," Pulsade sighed and leaned back on the cot. She swallowed. She looked at Jinx. "All right…."
Jinx brightened.
The assassin said: "I think I know where we might be able to dig up something smashing…."
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Before Robin died, he told me briefly about the 'Boy Wonder' that preceded him. He told me how he was Batman's protégé. How, in some fashion or another, the first Robin had grown up with Batman from an adolescent age even younger than the Titan leader himself. I was told of how Robin the First trained in every art that Batman was proficient at, and that at some point in his life he took a few years to go out on his own and train all throughout the world both the honorable and forbidden arts of fighting mastery. The young man had become an epitome of flying fists and kicking feet and spinning limbs. He became one with the wind, and his chi found some magical spot between agility and strength so that he could run circles around the most nimble of thugs and yet land both Bane and Clayface with a single punch to the chin—no small feat. Indeed, the first Robin had come close to being Batman's equal…and so independently had his intense training taken him that he actually socked Batman in the chin once himself, threw away his old cape and mask, and donned the dark black and blue icon of 'Nightwing'. The youthful vigilante….the Dark Avenger of Bludhaven…..the third most-feared name of criminals and rogues in all the world…
He stood just a few cold meters away. And he was going to arrest me.
"A funny thing what time does to us, Noir…," Nightwing said. His eyemask was narrow. His voice was rock solid and razor-sharp, much like a late bird I once knew. Much like the Batman, I assumed. "It changes us. Matures us. While others suffer from the gradual bump in the road of life and land disfigured, wretched."
"………," I glared at him. Myrkblade held tightly in my flesh-grip. Black eyes set firm beneath a pair of shades.
"I'm ashamed to see you as the latter," he said. "After all, you did fight alongside Robin while he was alive. You served the Titans for…what is it now? Six months? Seven? Half a year, Noir. That's an awfully short time to play the hero…….and then become the villain…."
My jaw tensed. I kept staring.
"What was it that tipped you over the edge, Noir?" He spoke as he paced around me.
I began to pace opposite him. We stood off against each other in an ever-revolving circle.
"Was it the things Dagger did to your City? Was it how viciously Robin died? Or was it that the Titans you once knew and loved were breaking up and you no longer had the lifestyle necessary to exercise your incessantly violent motives? Something tells me that the swordsman who takes a habit of wreaking havoc across Vegas and Metropolis is but a shadow of what you once were and perhaps still are in the dark, dirty recesses of your mind…."
I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my cool.
Jeez……this guy's a real dick.
I helplessly sighed.
Funny how detectives like Batman's troupe have a way of bullshitting and making other people feel truly guilty about it……
"Let's face it, Noir…," Nightwing murmured. "We both know the truth. It was Superman that you attacked. Superman and Diana."
"……," I blinked under my shades.
He's good……
"And for what did you perform such insanely violent acts against a vastly superior crime fighter? Just to get a beacon to summon the Dark Knight?"
Real good………
"This has gone too far, Noir," Nightwing hissed. "Everything. The breakup of the Titans. The inefficiency of the Justice League. The death and collapse of the Terrible Troupe….and all throughout, you have been a key pawn. YOU are the most significant element of the chaos ripping through this continent. Everywhere that both good and bad sides of the fence have suffered, you've been there. From the Justice League getting their asses kicked at the Metropolis shipyards to the destruction of Area 51. You're a bad luck charge. And I personally think that Batman is being an absolute moron by letting you go on your frivolous little dance across the crime scenes. Well, I think differently. I'm going to put a stop to it all…by putting a stop to you."
I took a deep breath.
So……
Batman is around. He is alive……
"………"
I made a face.
Wait a damned second. You're gonna stop it all by doing what?
"Give it up, Noir…," he pointed at me…specifically at Myrkblade and uttered in a low, threatening voice. "It's over. If I must whallop the truth into you, I will. But for your sake….I hope you make the right decision. Give yourself up."
"………"
"NOW!" Nightwing shouted.
And I couldn't help it. I shivered. And at first, I thought I was merely buckling from the unearthly strength and authoritarian voice coming out of his mouth. And that was indeed true—to some extent. But there was something else. Rather…..someone else…..
Rrrrrreddd Aviarrrry……
I gritted my teeth. They wanted to rattled against each other. I shuddered and as I held Myrkblade—shaking—my shaded eyes scanned the urban horizon of industrial factories, smokestacks, and warehouses around our rooftop.
No……
Not here.
Not now! PLEASE!
"Did you hear me?" Nightwing growled. His fists clenched, he marched towards me.
I panted. Sweating. Cold in the colder wind. I stepped back as he stepped forward.
Red Aviary is here.
He's watching.
Like a half-hungry cat.
He is toying with me.
God in Heaven, why doesn't he just strike?
I thought he was Death Incarnate.
But not……
"Give….yourself….up…..," Nightwing slurred. SL-SLIINK! Two glistening, razor-sharp nightarangs appeared in his grip. "Now….."
I came to a stop.
Silent.
Breath held….
"…….."
I stood up straight. I took a deep inhale. I furrowed my brow, braved the shivers running up my left prosthetic, and stared directly at Nightwing.
And….for some reason…he stopped.
We stood across from each other again. Facing off.
"………..," I sheathed Myrkblade slow….long….
Chiiii-iiii-iiiing!
I let my hand linger on the hilt.
I flipped it back in front of me.
I breathed deeply.
I flexed my limbs meditatively.
I balanced myself on my left foot outstretched and my right toes tilted downward in the boot. With my flesh and metal hands bare, I faced him in a fighting position.
Hand to hand fighting position.
His eyemask narrowed some. His lips lingered some before speaking, as if a far corner of the Bludhaven avenger found something to smirk at before he relented to utter: "You don't want to do that…."
"……..," I merely glared at him. Trying not to shiver.
You're right.
I don't want to do this.
Nightwing, you are one of the eight top martial artists in the whole freakin' world.
There is no way in the seven layers of chocolate-fudge Hell that I can beat you.
A shiver ran up my metal arm.
Much stronger than the last.
The taste of the Reaper.
A wraith-like gust of smoke and mirrors frigidity.
But I may be able to keep you busy.
Prolong the fight.
Just long enough……
Just long enough to show you something darker than mute words can convey.
"……..," he stared at me. "……………hmmph…..all right." CH-CHIING! He sheathed his nightarangs. He took a fighting position not much unlike my grasshopper stance. His mighty limbs became as thin and needle-sharp as rose stalks. He glared at me from across the rooftop in a straight line. "Any way you choose to be brought down….I assure you….I will deliver…."
I took a deep breath.
I'm betting on it.
A cold gust of wind.
I didn't shiver from it.
I was cold enough as it was.
The wraith was coming closer.
The breath of Red Aviary howled its way beneath the distant highways.
Over apartment complexes.
Between skyscrapers.
Settling in curtaining gales upon the factories.
The spires of the industrial section.
In the warehouse, the abandoned computer of Fox and the Ventriloquist lingered. The one that Selina Kyle's feline friend had found. I needed to leech that machine for what it was worth.
But as for now….all I had to care about was survival.
Not where Nightwing was concerned. I'd gladly let him 'kill' me just about any other day.
But Red Aviary……
I had to fight.
I had to fight….and fight long.
"………….," Nightwing glared. Quiet. Silent. Dark and brooding. Like an obtuse mirror.
Our long black locks danced in the wind. Two nimble, thin bodies poised across from each other in identical fashion. Dark eyemasks….dark shades….
Black and camo.
Black and blue.
A distant observer would think us twin brothers on the verge of a parricidal feud. Something the likes of which only frozen fists and knuckles could make under the cold red sky of Gotham. Like roaches converging in the dead organ of a giant animal autopsy. The world was dying around us. Being cleaved in two. Red Aviary took many names to take many souls and thus take many levels climbing up to the summit of the moral layer of Balance. My solution was to fling myself against the invulnerable. Nightwing's solution was to end me. It was a winning combination. And with the icy halo zeroing in on the two of us with each prophesying frozen throb of my metal arm….time was of the essence.
The quietness lingered for a dozen minutes at least. I had a sudden epiphany; that I was fighting Robin again. In sorrowful silence, his eyemask floated up from the dark nether and ran into me. Those small, taut limbs spinning and blurring and sailing their heated way into me. The spars we had in the gym. The laughing fits at how ridiculously close we came to tearing the training facilities down with each successive 'session' we enjoyed. The bo-staff and the Myrkblade singing through the air. His cries, my breaths, and the sweating rush of an endless competition in which I could never…ever….ever defeat him.
At least, not without my powers. And here I had agreed to Marquis of Queensbary Rules on steroids. Nightwing was a heck of a lot stronger, taller, older, bigger, and—perceivably—badder than Robin was when he died from a mere explosion. How flawed would I have been to assume the two shared the same fighting style on behalf of being trained by the Bat? And even then, how well could I fair? Better yet….how long could I stay alive?
I took a deep breath. I attempted to meditate. I reminded myself of the Spectrum. How everyone and all things are in tune to it. And how everyone is equally capable of possessing the Power, Balance, and Destruction of the Spectrum. And how everyone can be on the same page with each other if they focus….just focus. Like wind over the tall grass. Rain against the cedars. Snow upon….
There's been no snow in Gotham yet……
FWOOOOSH! And in just that spare blinking second, Nightwing had suddenly and speedily crossed four meters to rush up into me.
Holy crap!
"Rrrghh!" a forearm to the chest. WHUMP! "Nnngh!" A backhand uppercutting my chin. THWACK! An arm grappling my right limb. FWOOMP! "NnnngRAAUGH!" a tight body spinning, blurring, and tossing me across the rooftop. FWOOOOSH! TH-THUD!
I rolled across the gravel, tumbled, took a breath, and vaulted myself up with murk.
TH-THWISH!
I landed on my feet.
Pl-Plant!
One breath.
One blink.
And he was speeding towards me again.
"RAAAAUGH!" a sailing fist.
I crossed my flesh and metal arms in front of my face.
GRIP!
His fist chose not to punch but instead to grab my wrists in one tug. I was pulled forward in time to meet an elbow to my forehead.
WH-WHUD!
I teetered back.
Nightwing stepped towards me, tangling his foot with my left ankle. I don't know how he did it, but he twisted his limb around mine and pulled at all the wrong nerves at once. A sharp pain jolted up my pelvis like a bullet going off in my bottom kneecap. I instantly buckled…inevitably falling into him. And he was ready with a fist across my scarred cheek—WHAP!—and a hand planted against my sternum. SMACK!
The impact shoved me. In all actuality, the blow should have paralyzed me. But through sheer endurance and whatever shielding powers I may have possessed in my ragdoll body, I survived…merely sliding in reverse across the gravel in a frozen-still stance.
Scrkkkkkkk!
I came to a dusty stop. The soles of my boots red with heated friction. I stood still as a statue. My cheek bruised. My lips already bleeding. A few teeth just as numb as my lower left calf.
"……….," my black eyes widened from the long running wince. I took an aching breath. The chill of Red Aviary had intensified. I was still awake. I was still alive.
And Nightwing was coming at me again.
"Nnnngh…!"
Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
Closer…..Closer….
I remained frozen.
Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!
"RAAAUGH!" he sailed a flying kick at me.
Now!
I gritted my teeth and raised my metal fist up to the left of my neck.
THWAP! I blocked his sailing ankle just a second before it could have knocked my cranium off-kilter for good.
For half a second, a one-legged Nightwing stood off balance, gasping.
The second half a second was me gripping that leg with the same metal arm, twisting, and tugging down.
Nightwing countered acrobatically, as I expected him to do. A youthful finesse pivoted his weight in my metal-handed grip and allowed his opposite foot to fly at my in mid air.
I blurred both limbs over and grabbed his left foot before spinning and swinging him hard into the ground like a club.
THWAP!
"!" Nightwing's entire face cringed. Mask and all. He looked 'up' at me breathlessly.
I stared down at him and realized that—for one second too long—I was still holding onto his ankle.
He planted both of his palms into the rooftop in reverse, shoved up, spun his body horizontally, twisted, and used my grip of his ankle to wrench myself free of his twirling form and leaning off towards the side.
He vaulted up to his feet, spun at me, and swung a karate chop at my ribcage.
I spun to face him and blocked his left handed blow with my right hand.
He snarled and swung his right fist out.
I too blocked it, knocking his limb aside with a metal wrist.
He then jumped up and kicked me swan-style in the chest.
TH-THWAP!
I stumbled backwards.
He ran, dove, rolled on the ground, came up behind me, and swung a fist into the back of my head.
I reverse gripped it with a metal hand.
He easily pivoted his arm and elbowed me in the spine….right at a crucial nerve.
POW!
"!" I shrieked mutely and leaned forward, gasping for air.
GRIP!
He grabbed me by the waist, spun, and flung me across the rooftop.
THWOOOSH!
My body flailed for a breathless second until I found myself plummeting towards a t.v. antenna….a t.v. antenna which I promptly grabbed around the metal stalk, swung on, and propelled myself back at him.
He leapt easily over me.
I landed on the rooftop. Rolled. Jumped up to my feet. Spun around.
SWOOOOSH! Nightwing's fist in my face.
WHAP!
I stumbled back, coughing…sputtering.
"Nnngh!" He came at me with a fist to my chest.
I blocked it with my knee, then kicked my leg out straight.
TH-THAP! I caught him in the thigh.
I spun with a high-flying kick towards his cranium.
He blocked with his right limb, snaked the upper arm around my ankle, and jerked upwards.
"!" I gasped and helplessly fell till my own hands planted into the rooftop and prevented my skull from striking the floor.
He held me in a reverse 'wheelbarrow' position. He brought his other arm around, bore the elbow, and prepared to fiercely strike me in a spot where my leg was not made to bend.
I tensed my ankle muscles and shoved the tip of my boot pointedly in the sensitive spot of his back shoulderblade.
TH-THAP!
He winced and lingered in his administering blow.
I took the moment to inhale, stretch my muscles, 'curl-up' towards him, grip his shoulders, and use my weight to pull him down into a reverse body-vault.
THWOOOSH! He twirled in the air this time, but not without effortlessly flipping and landing squarely on his feet. When he did land, however, he heard the pitter-patter of gravel and looked beneath him to see that he was nearly tossed over the edge of the warehouse. For a split second, his eyemask actually widened. He slowly turned and gazed back at me.
Sweating, I had returned to a standing position. I twirled my arms and faced him again. Silent. Patient.
Shivering….
Red Aviary is nearer.
I can feel him.
Just a little bit longer……
"Hmm….you're a much bigger showoff than I thought," Nightwing murmured, cracking the joints in his arms and neck as he readied himself once again for action. "Robin must have rubbed off on you while he was alive…."
I took a deep breath.
Flatten me before you flatter me, handsome.
FWOOOSH! He came at me.
I winced.
Then again……
"HiYAA!" he jumped at me with a flying knee to my chin.
I ducked back just in time to avoid his blow.
He landed and immediately swept a leg out.
I backflipped it.
….or so I thought.
TH-THWAP! His fist slammed into my airborne body.
I tumbled across the rooftop.
He came at me, black hair billowing like the cape he gave up.
I stumbled up to my feet.
THWAP! BAM! SMACK! POW! I only heard four sounds of impact, but I could have sworn I felt nine blows to my person. His punches and strikes and chops were so fast, they surely had to have defied the speed of sound.
At the end of some string of punches from…somewhere, he swiftly appeared to my left and swung a heavy blow to my ribs.
THIS time I blocked. And it was a good thing for my bones too.
GRIP! A metal and flesh hand enclosed around his hand.
He hissed at me: "Face it, kid. You're not fast enough…."
I fiercely shoved his and mine combined wrists down into his own groin area. TH-THWUMP!
"NNNGH!" He bent over.
WHAM! I fiercely uppercutted him.
Nightwing flew back and landed on his butt.
Half a second later, a queer thing happen. My body spasmed all over…as if the nine blows he had dealt me took their precious five and a half seconds to take effect. I screamed in mute agony and fell on my back. THWOMP!
Nightwing was up in the second. Versatile bastard……
"You're beyond redemption……," he snarled and charged at me.
I winced, lying on my back.
Dude. Just deal with it.
He ran, jumped, and flew down at me with a missile of a kick aimed at my center of gravity. A horrifying move that I had witnessed Metallo do one too many times. "YAAAAAAAAUGH!"
I fought the tearing muscles and screamed my arms up to grip his sailing foot.
THWUMP!
It took a pulse of murk and all the strength in my prostrate body, but I managed to absorb the kinetic energy of his flying kick into my shoulders and shove it back out at him, flipping his agile body over my head.
TH-THWISH!
Nightwing twirled in the air. His feet met the stairwell atop the roof and planted against it.
I stood up. I looked at him, panting.
TH-THWOOSH! Nightwing vaulted towards me, fist flying.
I raised my right wrist to block the heavy punch.
THAP!
I blocked it…and of course he predicted it. He grabbed my wrist, spun around it, and slammed his knees into my chest.
SL-SLAP!
I stumbled back.
Nightwing vaulted off me, backflipped, landed, flexed his lower limbs, and charged at me like a black haired bull.
I grounded my feet into the rooftop and flexed my metal and flesh wrists.
I snarled.
He snarled.
"RAAUGH!" a left hook at my face.
GRIP! I palmed my flesh hand around his knuckles.
"NNNGH!" he swung a right hook.
CLANG! My metal hand mercilessly caught his punch.
"Aaaugh!" he yelped in pain. He gritted his teeth and shot his right leg out.
I twisted my left leg around it. TH-THWUMP!
Then his left leg rushed forward.
I similarly blocked it.
All of our limbs were locked.
So….
"NNngh!"
"!"
We both must have thought of it for the same time, for the hard parts of each of our skulls found themselves colliding loudly in the cold November air.
CL-CLONK!
"Aaaugh!"
"……!"
He stumbled back.
I teetered in reverse.
A groan. A gasp. A temporary migraine on both sides of the fence. Then….
Black eyes and masked eyes meeting.
"…."
"….."
"…..heh." FWOOSH! He came at me and brought a fist to my chest.
WHUMP!
I bent over, wheezing in pain.
THWAP! He uppercutted me.
I flew up in the air.
I came down.
"HYAAAA!" he spun a kick into my ribcage.
WHAM!
I ragdolled across the rooftop and rolled to a stop. Gasping. Coughing up blood.
"…..," Nightwing wiped a single trickle of red off his lip. He took a deep breath and marched menacingly towards me. "As much as this is making an otherwise stale…deathly night exciting….you're only prolonging the inevitable. Don't make me go all out on you, Noir…."
I hissed in pain, glaring a thin black eye up towards him.
Deathly?
You don't know deathly……
I shivered more and more.
I felt like my blood vessels were freezing.
I shuddered as I fought my way up to my knees.
Just you wait……
His eyemask narrowed in disbelief at me. "You can't be serious….."
I took a deep breath, meditatively posed my arms into fighting position, and stood ready across from him.
Robin mustn't have told you anything.
When am I ever not serious?
"……..," Nightwing raised his fists and spread his feet apart.
I took a deep breath.
Shivering from the inside out.
Come on.
Come on……
THWOOOSH! He came at me.
I tensed and readied my limbs.
He flew two punches.
I blocked(!), blocked(!) and swung a right hook at him.
He ducked, grabbed my arm, and twisted from the side.
I winced and teetered towards him.
He shoved an elbow into my face.
I palmed his elbow with my other hand, shoved him back, and twirled my whole body to meet his twisting of my arm.
He helplessly shook and jolted from my body flipping and wrapping nimbly around him.
I came down…knelt in the gravel…and pulled at his grip of me with all my might.
I swung him over me and let him fly across the gravel rooftop.
I don't know how he did it, but he somehow twirled about in the air and grabbed a palm-ful of black hair belonging to yours truly.
I winced all over as I was yanked forward by my very own roots and tossed into his awaiting fist as soon as he was grounded.
WH-WHAP!
I jolted backwards.
He spun at me, two karate-chops flinging across my sternum.
TH-THWAP!
I gasped, the air was knocked out of my lungs.
He spun and slammed a foot so hard into my abdomen that I thought my appendix might burst.
WHAM!
I flew back, rolled across the ground, and hobbled back up to my knees.
FWOOOSH! He rushed me.
I coughed, swallowed a glob of saliva and blood, and swung a blind metal fist at him.
He effortlessly ducked the blow, paralyzed me with a single punch to my collarbone, twirled around me, and slammed two joined fists across my top vertebrae.
I stumbled forward on numb, unbalanced feet.
He spun and slammed his foot into my right ribcage.
TH-THUD!
I winced all over. I felt like I was going to snap in two.
And then for show…he ran, dove, grabbed me by the shoulders, spun over me, knelt on the ground, and flung my flipping body across the rooftop and slamming through the metal antennae.
CR-CRACK!
I fell on the rooftop amidst a shower of metal shards and shrapnel. I shook…quivered…and fell flat against the structure. Wheezing. Blacking out.
Shivering…..
Stay awake, Jordan.
Stay awake……
My body shook all over.
I was growing numb.
I could feel him….
His red vision enveloping my haggard form.
His vaporous crimson mystique warbling in anticipation of my dying breath.
Or the one he ceased to end on his own. Its own. Her own.
Whatever.
Ana…give me strength.
I can't fall now.
Keep me awake.
I don't care about the pain……
Just keep me awake.
Please…
I panted.
I struggled up to my knees with trembling forearms.
Step! Step! STEP! CLUTCH!
Nightwing grabbed a handful of my hair and forced me to look up with a harsh yank.
I gasped, my black eyes stabbed by starlight.
He frowned down at me and raised his foot. To do what? Step on my face? Son of a……
"The further this goes, one of us will die…," he uttered. "Time to end it now."
Gee, you catch on quick.
SWOOOSH-GRIP! I caught his foot and shoved against him.
"Nnngh!" he hobbled back on one leg.
I took a breath, pivoted my aching limbs, and more-or-less breakdanced my body up with a vault of murk, tripping and concurrently kicking him off a few feet before I jumped into a standing position.
TH-THRUMP! Nightwing stumbled and hopped back to face me.
I weakly aimed myself at him, fists raised.
He rushed at me.
Chilled to the bone and practically freezing from my prosthetic down…I could do nothing but block…
Or try to block…..
THWAP! SMACK!
WHAP!
WHAM! P-POW!
Fist after fist. Elbow after chop. Knee after foot. Snarling teeth, glistening eyemask, long black locks billowing and a breath of hot air as limbs spun, limbs launched, limbs contacted….
WHACK! THWACK! POW!
I danced in the air as if being riddled by half-invisible bullets. One punch knocked my shades clear off, clattering across the rooftop. I coughed, spat, and chewed up blood before falling back numbly and collapsing utterly atop the rooftop.
I wheezed…helpless….
There was no way I could defeat him.
And even if I switched to using Myrkblade then and there, he had enough tools and tricks up his sleeve to end me then and there.
Besides……
GRIP! He picked me up by the collar of my camo jacket and hoisted me to his face.
Besides…………
"It's over, Noir….," Nightwing frowned and breathed hotly…angrily into my face. "I'm bringing you straight to GCPD…."
My black eyes were thin. Weak. Twitching as I gazed past him.
A laser light.
Shimmering.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. And with my naked vision, I could see the same with Nightwing's skin.
He's finally here……
"………," Nightwing blinked under his eyemask. He spotted the elusive red dot lingering on my forehead. "What in the Hell?" He turned. He looked behind us.
In the distance, across the warehouse rooftop…positioned atop a factory between smokestacks.
Rrrrrred Aviarrrrry……
An unearthly, thin figure. Dark. Billowing red smoke like flames. But cold. Chilling. And aiming a sniper rifle with a heated laser beam that zeroed in on the two of us combined and…
"!" Nightwing gasped and shoved the two of us down.
THWIFFT! TH-TH-THWIFFFT!
Bulletholes in the gravel of the rooftop exploded open all around us. PAFT! P-PAFT! PING!
Nightwing gasped. He grabbed me and protectively rolled the two of us out from the exploding bullet marks.
P-P-PING! PAFT!
He rolled us both to the edge of the roof. He snarled whipped out a nightarang, and tossed it maddeningly towards the distant smokestacks where the sniper resided.
TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSH!
The dark figure billowed red, pulsed, and leapt up into blurred oblivion.
FWOOOOSH!
"…….," Nightwing trembled. His breath showed vaporously in the November air. But something else was causing the chill. "What in god's name was that?"
"……..," I panted. On the verge of utter collapse.
He stood up, hoisting me limply along with him. He gulped and uttered with a round eyemask: "No way….Batman….B-Batman was right?"
"…….."
"Nnnnngh! No way!" Nightwing snarled. "He can't always be right! Not about this! It's impossible!" Nightwing looked all around us. "He died! He…."
TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!-CLANK!
Nightwing spun and looked.
The nightarang had been thrown back. It landed in the rooftop beneath us both. And a string of carbonite explosives were tied to it.
"!" Nightwing gasped. "Shit!"
Swiftly…mercilessly, he tossed me off the rooftop and suicidally dove behind…
PHHHOOOOMMMMBBBBB!
And a plume of maddening fire shattered the warehouse in two. As we plummeted four stories towards the rock hard, bone-breaking alleyway below….a collapsing mass of burning debris soared after us.
There was hardly enough clean oxygen left for our last breaths.
CRASSSSSSSH!
And something vaporous and red billowed above us.
Beating the air with crimson.
Like laughter…..
Clicking….laughter….
T-T-T-T-T-T-
Sometime that evening.
Or perhaps later that morning…
In the darkness of some underground place far south of Gotham City.
……
A light appeared.
Small.
Sharp.
Piercing the darkness.
It rolled closer and closer into view.
Reflecting off cylindrical, concrete walls.
A giant tube.
A winding tunnel running north and south.
The underground railway of Triangular.
A tiny, electric train vehicle ran the tracks until the tracks gave way to collapsed debris and gnarled, molten remains of a heated explosion at least a day old.
The vehicle moaned to a stop.
There were three people inside.
One adult and unconscious.
The other two petite…feminine.
One hopped out, clad in her usual outfit of frilled, purple jacketry. She landed as if from a ten foot, gymnastic plunge and raised her arms. "Ahhh…to be back out on foot again. Too bad there's no fresh air to enjoy, eh Les?"
"Whatever….," Pulsade murmured. Her right hand was glowing a bright beacon of light as she stood up from the small train car's seat. "…..feel free to jest all you want, now that we're out of the thick of it. You wouldn't believe how much trouble it was for me to distract the station blokes while you hexed from the shadows."
"Well….good job enlisting the help that you did," Jinx pointed and winked.
"Yes….indeed," Pulsade looked at the man in question and kicked him out of the train. WHUMP! "There's a nice chap."
The man fell over. Numb. Unconscious. His eyes glazed over. There was a tranquilizer needles stuck in his throat.
Pulsade hopped out, stepped over him, and stood besides the pink-eyed witch. The British assassin kept holding her glowing hand up, illuminating what turned out to be a collapsed mess of molted, fresh slade.
"Brill….," she murmured. "I should have known…."
"What?" Jinx blinked. She walked over and stood before the black rock. "Am I missing something?"
"Take a good long look, love," Pulsade gestured with an exhausted wrist. "Isn't it obvious?"
"…….."
She sighed. "The transport suffered a few jolts—indeed—when shipping the essence of Terra to Gotham. Most likely, the cargo boiled over, congealed, and formed this molten mess."
"Wow….instant volcano…," Jinx's cat eyes blinked. "Girl, if only I had that recipe back when I was with H.I.V.E. I would have made a science project fit for Gizmo to drool over!"
"Yes, well, drool all you want. This has been a wild goose chase…," Pulsade groaned and ran a hand over her face. "Just like everything else in our bloody projects…."
"Not necessarily….," the short-haired sorceresses girl-stepped towards the mess.
Pulsade blinked boredly at her. "Jean….what in the bloody hell are you doing?"
"Turn your light out."
"…..excuse me?"
"Your hand. Extinguish it for Hecate's sake!"
"Nnngh….fine…fine…"
Pulsade lowered her hand, concentrated, and turned out her metaphysical glow. And to her surprise, she could still see that end of the tunnel with relative comfort in spite of the light's absence. "What?"
"Shhh….," Jinx leaned over and pointed at the molten rock. "See?"
Pulsade leaned forward, her blue eyes narrowed.
The rock was glowing. Something beneath the debris was still glowing gold and hot. A lingering flame.
"….well if that doesn't just take the biscuit…," Pulsade uttered.
Jinx smiled proudly at her. "If your theory's correct, that be Terra's powers….right?"
"Erhm….."
"Right?"
"I don't know about this, Jean…"
"Call it a hunch…," Jinx cracked her knuckles and smilingly approached the debris. "I bet if I tap into this lovely mine, I'll find exactly what we need."
"And just how do you know that?" Pulsade frowned.
Jinx looked over her shoulder and winked. "It's a Secret."
Pulsade rolled her eyes. "Right. Jolly ho, then. Keep vaguely knocking the fourth wall."
"Huh?"
"Never you mind…."
Jinx strongly exhaled in an 'okaaaaay' fashion before positioning herself nimbly above the ashes. She took a deep breath. She pointed her palms out towards the fire. She closed her cat eyes. Concentrating…..concentrating….
"……………."
Her hands glowed a hot pink. Almost instantly, she shuddered.
Pulsade started, concerned. "Jean! What is it?"
Jinx's forehead was tense. "It….is definitely r-resonating……with the Earth Maiden's powers…."
"Can you trace her with it? Can you figure out where the lass is?"
"I…..I…..," Jinx swallowed and strained. "I think I can. Just hold on a second…."
Pulsade fidgeted. She stood but a few feet behind Jinx just in case…
FL-FLASH!
A huge strobe of pink. It throttled up Jinx's limbs and pulsed in her cranium. Just as she shrieked, a hot flash of golden light emanated from the burning pile and tossed her back.
"J-Jean!" Pulsade shouted and positioned herself just right to catch Jinx's flailing body.
Th-Thwump!
The blonde assassin reeled back, landing on her rear. She cradled Jinx's back to her chest and leaned over the girl's shoulder. "Jean….," she hissed. "Jean! Snap out of it, love! What happened?"
Jinx stirred…twitched…and opened her eyes. The usual pink eyes were replaced with a hot glow of gold. She gasped and stammered: "L-L-Leslie….Leslie…I…"
"Shh….," Pulsade caressed her cheek. "Calm down….."
"I saw….I-I saw, Leslie…."
"Saw what, Jean?"
Jinx swallowed. She shook her head as the gold slowly faded back to the pink. "Not what….who…."
"….."
"And where…..," Jinx hissed. A slight, shady smile as she passed out. "Who and where….."
"………," Leslie looked up. Her blue eyes traced the cylindrical walls of the tunnel. "And where in God's name is she?"
-T-T-T-T-T-T-
Terra gasped.
She shot up in her guest bed in Smallville, Kansas.
Trembling.
She hugged the covers to herself. It felt suddenly colder in there…and yet…
Warm.
Warm all the same.
Like a billowing flame in the center of the earth.
Crrrreak……
The door opened.
A bit frightened, Terra glanced over.
Kara stood in her pajamas. She leaned her head into the room and softly uttered; "Terra?"
"Y-Yes?"
"I was just up getting a glass of water…I thought I heard something in here. Is everything all right?"
Terra gulped. She held her hands up. There was a tingling sensation at the tips of her fingers. Like golden pinpricks dancing with faerie gasps.
"I……I don't know….."