Notes: I didn't edit this as well as I could have (time is a precious thing that I don't have much of Wednesday-Friday, I'm also in an early (+) timezone). Anyway, this chapter has action and drama.

Chapter 17 – Civilians

Reports were confusing. People were panicking. A large hole had swallowed up an area towards the edge of the city. Nightstar was kept updated by the single communications unit she had. It was connected to the ones Damian and Abuse carried. Since he was in the cave, Damian relayed what everyone else was doing to them. Oracle had quickly linked up all the other vigilantes to keep them updated.

The sinkhole had caused the earth to rumble as the buildings around it were sucked down.

"-tt- At least none of them are Wayne buildings," Damian mused over the comm. Trying for humour but it wasn't funny.

"Of course," Nightstar responded sarcastically. She thought it was a stupid thing to focus on while people were in trouble.

"I'm not sure this is natural," Damian mused instead, changing the subject.

Nightstar shook her head and didn't comment. Those raised by the Bat seemed to spend way too much time looking for other explanations. Besides, the sinkhole might not be caused by natural forces, it could be a result of human urbanisation of the wrong areas.

She reached the nearest building. She could see the sinkhole beyond it, a dark hole with rubble flicking in its depths. There was a large apartment building right at the edge. The wall facing the hole was completely gone, fallen into the depths below. Nightstar could see the people inside, running around or cowed in fear. Bricks had fallen, shaken loose by the structural fragility, and were still crumbling down into the street. The entrance was standing so Nightstar rushed in.

Instantly, she realised why none of the trapped people had come rushing out. The stairs had been cut off by the ceiling falling through them.

"You've got to be kidding me," she commented as she started trying to move some of the rubble. It became obvious, with the building beginning to groan, that this wasn't going to work. "How many corners did they cut?" she questioned out loud. Because it was easier to blame bad workmanship and cutting corners rather than think about the possible reason for it. She looked around; the elevator wouldn't be safe but the built in fire escape might be a good idea. She quickly opened the door, pulling it from its hinges as it had been locked, and cut out running altogether by flying up.

Over the comm, Damian informed her that Batman and Red Robin were helping to direct an evacuation of nearby buildings. Red Hood had turned up was putting certain civilians in charge of evacuating their buildings as well as trying to get a head count.

Dick and Steph had formed an odd alliance to do their job of helping those who weren't physically fit enough to evacuate quickly. Dick was carrying a few children down the sides of buildings to their parents while Steph was stuck with cajoling the older folk out of their beloved homes.

Nightstar yanked open door after door on the first floor, locked or not. She found a man crying over the loss of his sister's bedroom, which had fallen with the side of the building. It took more than a few words to bring him out of it enough to run to safety.

A family had been waiting for someone to come to tell them where to go. She ordered them outside and gave them the location of the nearest vigilante, which just so happened to be Batman.

"Is there anyway to contact everyone in the building?" she asked the man as his wife gathered a few things for the children. Just some books and pens to keep them busy during the next few hours.

The man shook his head. Nightstar sighed. She had already tried the fire alarm. For some reason, the alarm didn't work. She believed something had been pulled out with half the building missing, something important to having the alarm work.

"Here," the woman said, handing her a bell. Nightstar was grateful but also sceptical. This wasn't helpful for her goal of getting everyone out quickly.

She went to the second floor. On one side, whole apartments had begun falling in. On the other, some people slept without even realising that there was a state of emergency going on outside. Others had been crowded at the fire escape, banging on the door as they tried to break it down. Those people had been very relieved to see her when she yanked the door away.

Super strength did have its advantages.

One building cleared and Nightstar felt this was taking too long.

Damian apologised over the comm as he ditched the computer and cave. He pulled on Robin's uniform without a second thought.

Nightstar didn't blame him. She had heard Abuse's cry for help through the comm. as well. It felt like a failure on her part that she couldn't abandon the people in the next building to rush off and help Abuse. Abuse had been trying to 'dissuade' some of the looters taking advantage of the emergency services being busy.

She cursed the horrible people who thought of making trouble when so many others were losing everything.

"Nightstar!"

She jumped at the sound of her father's voice in her ear. She twisted around before recalling the comm.

"Dad?" she questioned, wondering why he was talking to her. She had just finished carrying an old lady out onto the street with a child who had been left home alone following behind her. "How-"

"I ran into Robin. He gave me his comm. Where are you?" he asked. She could hear the worry in his voice. It bugged her a little.

"Is this really the time to be asking?" she questioned. The building she was in groaned and something crashed. She blinked as her sense of balance went askew. She answered his question anyway. She had taken note of the name of the building and the street she was in when she had run in.

It was some kind of youth hostel. While run down, it boasted good security.

"Nightstar, you need to get out of there!"

"In a moment!" she responded. She was here because she had heard a scream. There was someone in this building.

"No, right now!"

"There's someone in here!" She couldn't leave without helping them! They were in danger!

There! A woman, only a few years older than her, stumbling around and crying her eyes out. Scared and confused.

Nightstar reached her and lightly and comfortingly touched her.

The woman sobbed but grabbed on tightly.

"Let's get out of here," Nightstar said to her. She looked around, ready to move.

That's when she realised why her balance was off. It was the building.

It was slanted, like it was sinking.

Nightstar didn't have time to think. She lifted the woman up and bolted for the nearest window.

That is when she learnt that flying does no good when there are wall all around. The last thing she recalled was the wall rising across to meet her as she tried to reach the sliding window in time.