For a 21st century hacker, technology was a godsend. Anything and everything could be accessed through it.
Everything except for hospital wards.
Due to federal laws, there wasn't a single security camera in patient areas. The rooms, the hallways, nurse's station, none of it was being watched. That was a giant blind spot if someone wanted to get a visual.
It had taken some time, but Barbara had recalled a time when her father had been in the hospital. It had been after the Joker's first use of Joker Venom and the police force had done their damnedest to make sure no one got to her father, one of the only survivors of that attack.
There had been a couple prisoner patients in the hospital at the time and one of them had explained the protocol for having one in a hospital setting. Two guards were present at all times, one unarmed in the room and the other outside the door, armed. The prisoner would be restrained with handcuffs, though the nurses made sure the handcuffs weren't so tight so as to cause damage to the skin.
In today's world, it was highly encouraged for officers to wear body cams to record interactions with the public. Using that, Barbara hacked into the GCPD and located the footage from the cams. While she had been expecting the body cams to be recorded on the officers, she was surprised to find the specific cameras transmitted when they recorded to a database at the precinct; this was to preserve any footage in the event the body cam was damaged.
From there, it was only a matter of time until she found footage that was currently being recorded. Shifting through that, she found found the footage for the ones at Gotham Mercy.
It seemed due to Hugo Strange's high profile, her father had managed to convince the hospital to allow him to double the security. This still had to follow hospital protocol, but there were two unarmed guards in the room and two armed ones at the door. From the footage, Barbara could make out handcuffs, one each around Strange's wrists and ankles. His body seemed smaller, though it still maintained the bulk from his Monster Man serum. There was a tube sticking out of his mouth and all sorts of machines monitoring his vital signs and heart rhythms. A small computer extended from the wall, the monitor showing the login for the hospital's charting system.
Currently, Barbara was in the process of hacking the hospital's system to determine the exact location of Strange's room, what his condition was, and what the plan of care was going forward. It was proving harder than she had thought, but then you didn't hear about hospitals being successfully hacked like businesses and internet companies.
In the meantime, the redhead had one of her monitor's dedicated to the body cameras in Strange's room. Every so often she would glance at it, only to see that Strange hadn't so much as twitched in his hospital bed. She wasn't sure why she expect anything different, but she just couldn't help herself.
After everything he had done, she couldn't help but take some satisfaction in his current status.
Returning her attention back to her main monitor, Barbara got back to work on hacking into the hospital. There was no rest for the weary after all.
The automatic doors opened and in stepped a man in a long coat into the hospital lobby. He glanced at the number of people taking up chairs or standing out of the way as hospital trafficked in and out of intersection hallways. Falling onto the front desk, his eyes lit up and he took his first steps into the building.
Crane ignored the sight of various people with varying degrees of injury, whether they were hurt, or if they were waiting for updates on their loved ones. For the time being, they meant little to him, though his gaze lingered on those who showed any kinds of anxiety. None of it was quite fear-based, though they were a step away from it.
Reaching the front desk, he stood in line and waited his turn like any law-abiding citizen. The former scientist bided his time by continuing to observe the people in this place, taking in the sight of human suffering. None of it moved him, or reminded him of his mortality. When it came down to it, it was fear that drove them all here, specifically the fear of death, and pain was only its dreaded precursor. All of them here were afraid of death even though a place like this was steeped with it.
It was fascinating to see just how far a person would go to avoid it.
Eventually, he arrived at the front of the line where a bored-appearing receptionist barely gave him a look. "What's your emergency?" she asked dully.
Ah yes, this was the emergency room. They were only concerned with patients who needed immediate help, though it was used more for those poverty-stricken and in need of any kind of medical service.
"Actually, I'm here to visit a patient already in admittance," Crane answered as he placed his lower arms on the counter and leaned forward.
"Visiting hours are over, Sir. Please come back tomorrow," the receptionist deadpanned.
"My apologies, I'm afraid I wasn't aware of that. Perhaps you could make an exception. I'm here to see my friend, Hugo Strange," Crane pressed.
The receptionist stared at him. "Visiting hours are over, Sir. Please come back tomorrow," she repeated.
"Would you mind looking up his room number? That way I can arrive here bright and early and not disturb you?" he asked mildly.
"I'm can't do that, sSir. This desk is for people with real emergencies. Please come back tomorrow."
"Fine," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Have it your way."
And with that, he left his coveted spot at the front desk and began heading back to the entrance, like any normal person rebuffed by the hospital staff. Unlike a regular person, he began dropping small balls onto the floor that bounced and rolled away unnoticed by all. He would take a couple steps and slip one out, keeping an unneeded eye out for anyone that might catch on.
He didn't need to watch the balls; they were designed to release a concentrated version of his aerosol fear toxin after a set amount of time had passed. The timer itself was activated with the initial collision with the floor, and delayed by a sensor that detected motion. Once it had stopped moving, the gas be released.
By the time he reached the automatic doors, he stopped himself just before the doors' sensor could detect him. Reaching into his coat, he withdrew a brown-colored mask, his fingers slipping into it to activate the air filter embedded in it. By now, the first ball should be releasing its contents. In less than five minutes, much of the lobby should be exposed.
Putting the mask on, he made a few adjustment to it before pulling out a small taser gun. Aiming it at the door sensor, he fired the four prongs and shorted not only the sensor, but the electrical wiring to the doors. The emergency room would be closing down for the night.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" a aggravated voice demanded. To him, it sounded like that receptionist.
"I changed my mind, Miss," Crane replied, turning on his heel to face the rest of the lobby. To his keen eyes, he could see the dullards around him widen theirs, the first signs of the gas beginning to affect them. "You're going to have to make an exception to your visitation policy."
Barbara frowned as her attention was drawn to the monitor that was keeping an eye on Gotham Mercy. The footage of the hospital was divided into four different shots of the various security cameras in the building, none of which were anywhere near where the patient rooms were. She could have sworn she saw someone running in one of the shots.
Selecting one of the feeds, she enlarged it so that only one instead of four were visible on the monitor and waited. Nothing seemed to be happening, but she did notice that the shot didn't have anybody in it. Normally there was some light traffic, and even if no one was seen, all it would take was a few seconds before that changed.
Thirty seconds had passed and no one. Barbara was quick to not jump to conclusions here, instead choosing to check another feed. Maybe there was an emergency in another part of the building and as a result required less people in this part.
She flipped through a few more feeds, frowning at a continued absence of people. Now she was starting to get suspicious. If only hospitals had more cameras in them. Wait a second, she just caught sight of someone running around a corner. Moving through the feeds as fast as she could, she stopped abruptly as a view of the entrance to the emergency room came on screen.
There were people there, and it was not a surprise that there were injured people there. What was surprising was that it was the people in there causing the injuries. She could see people attacking one another, and others were curled under seats like they were trying to hide themselves.
One person had picked up a chair and was using it as a weapon, defensively she noted as the guy was swinging it like he was trying to ward something away. The problem there was that there was no one in front of him.
None of this looked right.
"Everyone," she spoke into her comm receiver, "something's happening at Gotham Mercy. Everyone get there immediately. I think it's starting."
Racing to get to Gotham Mercy, the members of the Network believed they had made good time. Outwardly, the building didn't look like something was happening in it; you could still see lights inside of it. However, as they reached the front entrance, that's when things began to feel...off.
Yes, the lights were on, but there was no one around. It was...empty. Too empty for a place like this. Where was everybody?
"I'm starting to get creeped out," Spoiler muttered.
Naturally, that was when they heard the scream. It sounded like a man's and it sounded far away. Immediately, everyone pulled out whatever weapon they could get their hands on from bo staffs, to bow and arrows, eskrima sticks to birdarangs, and for those without, they balled their hands into fists.
"Let me guess, this is the part where someone says we need to split up," Red Hood snarked.
Ignoring him, Huntress was the one to ask, "Oracle, where's Strange?"
"Tenth floor, room 1017. So far, the guards on duty haven't been hit yet, but I'm betting that won't last for long. Someone needs to get up there."
"Okay, first priority, we need to reach Strange and keep an eye on him," Huntress commanded. "We know he's the end game so let's head the Phantasm off there. I don't care how you get up there, just do it."
"What about those screams?" Green Arrow asked. "Are we going to ignore them?"
"Last I remember, this guy uses fear toxin. Odds are everybody here has been exposed to it," Black Canary answered. "They're going to be panicking like nobody's business. We'll just have to restrain anyone we come across so they can't hurt us or themselves."
No sooner had she spoken that someone ran into sight, a screaming woman who came to an abrupt stop in front of the group of vigilantes. Her eyes were dilated, her breathing rapid, and her skin was drenched with sweat. She gave another scream, one that was positively head-splitting.
"Monsters! There's monsters! Don't eat me!"
Like it was an alarm, other people showed up, most of them looking like normal people, some in regular street clothes and others in hospital scrubs. A couple were in security uniforms, which really shot up the danger level here.
Someone summed it up when they said, "Crap."
There were screams and yells as the group of vigilantes were attacked. Because they were in the front, the Birds were the vanguard that the hospital goers crashed into. One man leapt into the air, flinging himself at Katana and screaming all the while. The Asian vigilante slipped around them and rammed a knee into the man's stomach, then slammed an elbow into the back of his head to effectively knock him out.
Between the two of them, Huntress and Manhunter were using their bo staffs to hold back any that ran at them. With Huntress, it was a man in a flannel and blue jean ensemble along with a male hospital staffer while Manhunter dealt with a nurse and another male hospital worker. Initially pushed back, both women dug their feet into the linoleum floor and pushed back with all their might. It was Black Canary and Nightwing to the rescue, though, the two aiding vigilante removing both male hospital staffers so that the ladies could focus on one person each.
Black Canary had gone in with a high kick to the side of her staffer's head, grabbing onto an arm while spinning around so that her back pressed into her opponent, and then flung him over her shoulder and onto the floor. Nightwing was tackling his man from the side and forcefully dragging him away. Abruptly, his man spun around and swung a fist, which the vigilante ducked and drove an elbow into the man's stomach, and then followed up by smashing his palm up into the guy's chin.
Manhunter took advantage of the aid to tear her staff away from the female nurse, using one end to strike the woman's side, then sweep the other down to knock the lady's legs out from under her. A quick rap of the staff's end knocked the poor, panicking woman out. Huntress was not as lucky as the flannel wearing man retained his grip.
Meanwhile, it was between Green Arrow and the remaining Batclan to mop up the rest. With an arrow already notched, he shot it at one of the two security personnel, the arrowhead detonating and releasing a net to restrain the guard. As that man struggled against the netting, Bluebird and Spoiler tag-teamed a skinny male staffer—wait, his badge said he was a nurse—the former using her taser rifle as a ram to go frontal while Spoiler circled around and struck from behind. Air was forced out of the male nurse's lungs and a blow to his back brought him to his knees. Bluebird finished him off by nailing him in the side of the head with back of her rifle. Coming from the pair's blindside, another hospital goer tried to rush them only to get tripped by Red Robin who had held back. Only now did he act, stopping the charge and subdue the panicked attacker as quick as he could.
That left Red Hood to deal with the last security guard, but he had a problem. Apparently, this guy was packing as he had whipped out a gun. Grabbing a nearby lamp, Red Hood threw the plastic object at the guard who instead of keeping his aim on the vigilante, followed the lamp and opened fire on it. Taking advantage of this, Red Hood tackled the guard from behind, landing a couple kidney shots, and attempted to take the gun away. If the guard was stunned, that was over quickly as he began to struggle for the weapon, almost desperately trying not to lose it. If you paid any attention, you could see tears running down the side of his face, like he was fighting for his life and knew he was losing.
That struggle ended when a boxing glove put him out of his misery.
At that time, the flannel-wearing man tore Huntress' bo staff out of her grasp, the vigilante pulling back instinctively. This guy had proven to be strong, in that he hadn't let of the staff at any time and Huntress had been unable to yank it away. Now she was on the defensive, waiting for the snarling man to attack her.
Holding the staff at one of its end, the man raised it above his head like it was a club, or more likely a baseball bat. That's why he underestimated its length and the other end of the staff crashed into a light fixture. Immediately, his body began to shake as electricity flowed through the metal staff and into his body, his hands reflexively tightening their grip on the weapon. Eyes widening, Huntress lunged forward, keeping her body low and angling her shoulder so that it was the part of her body that was in front.
She rammed into the man's stomach and the force of throwing her body into him was enough to knock him back and remove the bo staff from the light fixture. Down the guy went, his body twitching and spasming from the residue electricity still working its way throughout his body, but a quick pulse check revealed he still had a heartbeat.
He was definitely going to need some medical attention, though.
"Was it just me, or was that crazy?" Green Arrow asked.
"Something's not right about this," Huntress stated.
"They were panicked. Too panicked," Katana agreed.
"You're saying they were scared?" Bluebird asked, looking bewildered at the women.
"Let's not go over how we know the Phantasm uses fear toxin. There's a reason it makes people scared and that's what it does," Nightwing spoke up. "I haven't seen anything like this since the October 27 Attack."
"You and me both," Red Robin agreed as he tested the custom-made cuffs he had put on his guy.
"Whoa, this guy has some track marks on him," Red Hood called out, his eyes trained on one of the security guard's arms.
"Let me see," Manhunter said, walking fast to reach the man in question. There on the lower arm were four puncture sites, though they weren't in a straight line. They weren't scattered either, and if you squinted your eyes enough, you could it was more like a curve pattern.
"This guys has some in his neck," Black Canary added, checking the man she had knocked out. "Since when did the Phantasm start injecting people? Is that stuff even injectable?"
"Something stinks to high heave,n but we're not going to find out what it is sticking around here," Huntress said. "Let's move people. We need to get to Strange first before anything else."
The sight of the police officers was a dead giveaway as to which room Strange was held in. There were two men, both trying to speak over the radio and receiving no answer. Crane's distraction was working.
One of the guards had his hand over the handle of his gun; he hadn't taken it out yet, but it was obvious that he was nervous, willing to answer any sign of trouble with a bullet. They were expecting trouble, but the Phantasm had no intention of being the kind they were expecting.
It allowed its smoke to flow over the floor, making its way to the two officers who had yet to notice its approach. In time they would, but it would be far too late for either of them to do anything. When the smoke began to wisp around their feet, the Phantasm began to cover itself with the smokescreen before stepping out into the hallway and heading directly to the two men.
The masked killer was within feet of the guarded room when the officers finally noticed the smoke. "Is there a fire, Davis?" the guard with his hand over his gun demanded, pulling out his firearm and raising it up to point into the smoke.
That's when it struck, swinging its bladed hand out and disarming the cop. The gun was cut in half, the barrel clattering onto the floor. With its other hand, the wraith shoved the man into the wall and used him as a prop to surge forward and hold itself up as it landed a kick to the face of the other guard. The second guard's head snapped back and he stumbled away.
Reversing its grip on the first guard, it pulled down and used its weaponized arm to flip and throw the man into his partner, knocking the still standing officer to the floor. The second guard's head bounced off the tiled floor, his body going limp under his partner's. Quickly moving, the masked killer stomped its foot on the first guard's head to knock him out.
Those two were taken care of. Because they were not its target, the Phantasm held no interest in killing them. What would be the point? They were in the wrong place at the wrong time doing their jobs and there was no sin in that. Neither deserved the ultimate punishment.
Turning to the door, the Phantasm eyed it, assuming that it would be locked. What had happened only seconds ago hadn't been quiet and if there was anyone inside, they would more than likely have locked the door.
Except, as the Phantasm studied the door, it saw no keyhole, or any indication of a locking mechanism. Reaching out with its empty hand, it grabbed onto the door handle and pushed against it. Amazingly enough, the door opened.
Suddenly, a force from the other side pushed back; there was someone inside and they were trying to keep the door closed. Making a quick calculation, the Phantasm held its bladed hand by the barrier and fired its large blade into it. As the plastic coating crumbled and the reinforced cardboard splinter, there was a cry on the other side and a lessening of force.
Retrieving the blade, the masked killer picked up a leg and kick the door in, a cop on the other side stumbling back and onto the floor from being struck. Taking a step into the room, the Phantasm braced itself at the last second as a large, uniformed cop came from a side and ran into it. Catching the tackle, the murderous vigilante struggled with the dark-skinned cop, the man not letting up with the grapple for a moment.
The two combatants grunted with their efforts, the guard managing to overpower the killer momentarily, which was long enough to slam the hooded intruder into a wall. Booted feet screeched against the floor as the Phantasm tried to pull away, but to no avail. If brute force wasn't enough, some finesse was needed.
As the guard tried to hit the killer against the wall again, the hooded intruder raised a booted foot and planted on that wall. In a second, the Phantasm ran up it and pushed off, going over the man's head and behind him. Turned so that it would not be lethal, the Phantasm brought its bladed hand down and struck the back of the officer's head with the flat end of the blade. The man gave a cry as crumpled beneath the blow, the killer lifting that same weaponized hand, pulling it back and landing a second, blunt hit to the side of the man's head, smashing it into the wall.
Reacting quickly, the skull-masked vigilante turned to a side caught the arm of the last remaining, conscious guard. The man had tried to sneak up on the killer, but obviously had been unsuccessful. With a tight grip, it then leveraged the arm and threw the man over its shoulder, forcing the guard to land on top of his colleague. Raising a foot, it kicked down and finished that last bit of resistance.
There, now there was no one left to get in its way. Scanning to room to be sure, the Phantasm then approached Hugo Strange's prone form. Still retaining the effects of his Monster Man serum, the body had retained its muscular form. It would take some time for there to be any decrease in mass. This meant that if the murderous vigilante wanted to kill, it was either go for one of the body's more vulnerable areas, or make sure its weapon was sharp.
Pausing, the Phantasm listened to the heart monitor and the steady beating. That was interesting; though this machine was suppose to monitor signs of life, it would serve to prove Strange's death once and for all.
Coming to a stop at Strange's bedside, it eyed the comatose man's chest, exactly where the heart was. That looked as good as any place to start.
Without any delay, the Phantasm raised its bladed hand over its head, and prepared to bring this to an end.
They had managed to go up several flights of stairs before they ran into more poisoned people, and all of them were very determined to tear apart anyone that got in their way. A shame that these law-upholding vigilantes happened to be there.
Sucked to be them, eh?
At some point, they had all gotten separated. Green Arrow hoped that the kiddos were still together, but when you had a bunch of people trying to rip your arms out of their sockets, you tended to overlook some things.
Right now, the transplant from Star City was was taking a count of the arrows he had on him all the while bludgeoning a doctor with the handle of his bow. He didn't like having to use his bow like a club, but right now the last thing he wanted to do was turn innocent, terrified people into pin cushions.
Hearing a yell up ahead, he grimaced as he saw a middle-aged man, most likely here to visit someone, running at him with a fire axe. The archer dodged to a side as the axe blade swung down, missing by more than a mile. Grabbing a chair that was situated in the hallway, he used the furniture to block the follow up swing. He blocked a second swing, then a third, before ramming what was left of the hacked wooden chair forward and forced the man back.
While he stumbled back, the axe-wielding man tightened his grip on the axe handle and came changing at the vigilante once more, screaming all the while. Instead of using the chair to block the axe blade, Green Arrow thrusted the piece of furniture at the handle then twisted to a side. The chair's cushion caught the axe under its blade and when the chair itself was thrown to a side, the weapon was pulled out of the panicked man's hand.
Not even hesitating, Arrow spun and swung a kick, landing it in the side of the man's head and taking him out. Phew, that had been a little jarring. He was going to have to do something about some of the potential deadly weapons that were around this place.
First thing was first, time to find out where everyone was.
"Hey—hold on a sec."
Just as he was able to contact Oracle, someone burst out of a room and they were holding a syringe like it was a weapon. That reminded him, were his shots up to date? Hopefully that wasn't a needle found in the trash can.
Normally, Green Arrow would have decked anyone who tried to stab him non-medically with a needle, but this was a woman, a nurse by all appearance, and that made him feel a little bad. He quickly backed up as the sobbing woman was a slave to her fight-or-flight response, and it was obvious she was picking fight.
"Leave me alone, please leave me alone!" the woman sobbed.
"I'm trying to, but you won't let me," he retorted
Catching the woman by her wrist, the one with the syringe, he twisted that hand to a side and threw his head forward, headbutting the poor woman. And down she went, stunned, and slowly falling into unconsciousness. He still took the time to take the syringe out of her iron grip, but that wasn't because he was nervous about any needles.
You know, an arrow that could serve as a tranquilizer was starting to look good right about now. A shame he didn't have one on him, or had invented one yet. The only arrows he had were offensive, and tended to be sharp and pointy, or shocking to say the least. He had already used up the nets and restraining arrows, and he only really kept one with the boxing glove crammed into it.
Yes, those things were hard to get into an arrow tip.
"Okay, Arrow's here. Where's everyone else?" he spoke out loud, hand placed by his ear.
"Which floor are you on? I'm not seeing you on any of the feeds," their suppose-to-be eye on the ground told him. "Quick, what are the room numbers?"
Resisting the urge to give a sigh, the Emerald Archer took a quick look at the nearest door. "Says 404."
"You're on the fourth floor; you need to get to the tenth," Oracle told him. "You must be in the northwest corner. There's a stairwell in the southwest, if you can get there."
"On it," he said.
So it was a climb up a bunch more stairs, huh? Maybe it would be better to take the elevator.
An arm suddenly wrapped around his neck and pulled back, yanking him off-balance. Arrow was already grabbing at it even as he reset his feet, ready to throw whoever it was behind him. No one snuck—OW!
Four needles—yes four—were stabbed into the side of his neck. "You look like the strong sort," a voice whispered close to his ear. "Let's see how you'll react."
If there was anyone that was going to find this Phantom guy, of course it was going to be one of the inexperienced guys. That's how it worked in the movies and books and TV shows.
Spoiler had been the one to find Strange's hospital room. That's right, her, the Spoiler, heartthrob of teen boys everywhere. Not Black Canary with her kickass fishnets, or Huntress and her mean right hook. Even that archer guy would've been a better choice. No, it had to be her in her pink cloak that found the unconscious policemen lying on the floor.
At least, she was hoping they were unconscious.
With a trembling hand, Spoiler pulled out a birdarang and it shook in her hand. "Umm, Oracle? Nightwing? Anyone?" she spoke into the receiver of her comm link. "I think I found that Strange guy's room."
Oracle immediately responded to her. "What's your situation?"
"Umm, well, I see a couple of the guards lying on the floor outside the room. I...I think that creepy guy might be here."
"Have you got a visual on the Phantasm or Strange?" Oracle demanded, her tone getting even more serious. Spoiler couldn't help but wince from it.
"No, I'm in the hallway a couple doors down."
"Get a visual and tell me what's going down. I've got help on the way."
On the way? They needed to be here! Swallowing, Spoiler crept down the hallway, her mind constantly repeating "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," the closer she got to the slumped men. She felt a little bit of relief when she noticed both were still breathing as their chests slowly rose and fell.
However, the moment she got to the doorway, she noticed two more bodies lying on the floor, also dressed like police. Spoiler gulped as she reluctantly stood in the doorway.
There, standing by the bed, was the Phantasm. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! her mind screamed at the sight of the tacky cloak and the very sharp-looking blade on the killer's hand. In fact, the wicked-looking thing was raised above the Phantasm, ready to cut down the unconscious Hugo Strange.
Oh, Stephanie, you are so going to hate yourself for this in the morning.
Quickly shooting her birdarang-holding hand up by her head, she then threw the projectile at the Phantasm. She had hoped to hit the guy in the head while he was focused on Strange, but unfortunately, her luck wasn't that good.
As if sensing it, the Phantasm twisted their body around swung their blade, the metal clashing with the metal of the birdarang, causing the collision to ring out. The birdarang was ultimately knocked aside, hitting a wall where one end stuck into the sheetrock.
The Phantasm regarded Spoiler with a look she suspected was either annoyance or disapproval—she wasn't quite sure which one was worse at the moment.
"Do not interfere," he warned the young girl, his blank white eyes boring holes into her anxiety-ridden body. "You cannot stop this."
Now this was the time where she should have said something defiant and witty and perhaps a touch sarcastic. That was how all upstanding girl responded to deadly serious guys. Too bad Spoiler's knees were too busy knocking against each other, not to mention she found her normally loquacious tongue felt like a dead weight in her mouth. However, she did find the courage to backtalk the guy.
"Not today, buster."
Immediately, she made a face underneath her mask. Not today, buster? Really? That was the best she could come up with? Geez, so much for defiant, witty, and sarcastic.
"You have no place here. Leave, or I will strike you down," the Phantasm warned.
Alright, it was time to put up or shut up. Now, it was probably a better idea to tell Oracle what was going on. In fact, she probably should have done that the moment she reached the room. However, life had a way of working in seconds. One second spent hesitating could lead to a second of action, or in this case murder. Talking over the radio versus stopping the kill stroke each took one second, but there was only time for one.
And now she had that same dilemma. One second to tell Oracle what was going on, or one second to defend herself—she could only pick one.
Finding those brass balls Harper kept telling her to find, Spoiler shoved her hands back into her belt and pulled out a couple more birdarangs. In a split-second, she sent them flying at the Phantasm.
Of course, this wasn't some thug in a dark alleyway that didn't know how to defend themselves against birdarangs. This was the Phantasm and with a quick slice of its blade-hand, it deflected one of the birdarangs, then just as fast did a backswing, knocking aside the second one.
Then his threw his gloved hand out in front of him and a burst of dark smoke seemed to fire from his palm. Alarms rang out in Spoiler's head as she remembered all of the warnings of this maniac's gas. That there was fear gas mixed in it. No doubt the Phantasm wanted to freak her out of her mind so that he could buy enough time to finish off Strange.
God, what did it have to be her to find this guy?
Seeing no other real option, Spoiler took a deep breath and took off running, vanishing into the small cloud of smoke before bursting out of the other side. As expected, Phantasm had turned back to regard Strange, his side and back towards the younger vigilante.
Lowering her shoulder, Spoiler ran into the killer's back, wrapping her arms around his waist and trying to pull him away. For a moment, she thought it was weird that the Phantasm was so thin. She was honestly expected this bigger, more muscly guy. And there seemed to be a roundness to the hips that was more noticeable.
Those thoughts took an immediate backseat as the Phantasm jerked backwards a step, twisting and turning their body to throw Spoiler off. The sudden thrashing caused the pink-clad girl to lose her grip and she went sliding across the floor until she crashed into a hospital chair, falling into it clumsily.
"I warned you to stay out of this," the Phantasm growled as he glared—or at least that what she thought the look was—at her. There was a twitch in the arm that the hand-blade was connected to.
Suddenly, a red-and-yellow blur raced into the room. Spoiler only saw this out of the corner of her eye due to the angle she was at. It took a moment for her brain to register Katana leaping at the Phantasm, hitting the dude full-force and tackling him. The force of the hit knocked the Phantasm right off his feet and sent the two lunging for the window.
The glass shattered on impact and the last Spoiler saw was Katana and Phantasm's feet disappearing over the edge. With wide eyes, the young girl stared at the broken window, her heart beating hard in her chest.
Well, Oracle had said help was on the way. This must have been it.
Thank you, Oracle.
To FlackAttack: Consider it a building block for a future storyline