A throng of bodies littered the sidewalk and pavement. Laying sprawled across the ground were a collection of men in dirty, ripped clothing. The glowing lights from signs and streetlights displayed them in different colors on the ground. The lights reflected off of various weapons on the ground, the light glinting off the metal where it wasn't too dirty or rusted. Knives and guns and a few random blunt objects. The men lay there, bloody and battered. But still alive. Standing over them was Nightwing, with Raven standing nearby. Except for a small tear in Nightwing's outfit and a stain on Raven's cape, they were unmarked from the violence. Nightwing currently had one of the men, the only one still conscious, pressed up against a wall.
They were standing outside of a club. Multicolored strobing lights came from the entrance of the club, but a cursory examination of the exterior made it apparent that it was a fairly seedy place. There was graffiti on the walls, and the neon sign had a few letters burned out.
Nightwing and Raven had set out looking for criminals to question. Some of them were easy to find. They had stopped a random mugger, and then found a dirty bar on a street corner that hadn't been there in their younger days. They found a wanted man and a few of his buddies there. They didn't have anything to say about Aqualad's murder, or anything else pertaining to their investigation. They restrained the men and called the police from a payphone.
After another hour, they found the club they were currently visiting. Nightwing had a hunch they would find a criminal element in there. As it turned out, the club was frequented by a local gang. As soon as they entered, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked right at them, instantly recognizing what, if not who, they were. The gang reacted negatively to the sight of costumed heroes and quickly became hostile. Hostility shortly turned to violence. The mess of bodies at Nightwing and Raven's feet was the end result of that. Now, they were questioning the man who was the apparent leader of the gang.
"A superhero was killed in this city recently." Nightwing said. "Do you know anything about that?" The gang leader was a tattooed man with a shaved head. Burly, but not ripped. He grunted, but didn't say anything. Nightwing gripped the man's throat.
"You saw what I did to your friends." He said.
"Not just you." Raven said in a neutral tone.
"Right. What we did. We can do worse to you." The leader locked eyes with Nightwing for a moment, and then spit in his face. For a second, Nightwing stood there as the man smirked. Beside them, Raven's eyes glowed. Black tendrils shot out of the wall, and wrapped themselves around the man's arms. Nightwing stepped back, and watched as liquid-like black goo poured over the man's face and into his orifices, as he tried to scream but couldn't. He thrashed and trembled in vain.
"Raven, that's enough." Nightwing said. After another second, the dark magic began to dissipate. Raven's eyes returned to normal, and the vile goo disappeared. The gang leader fell to his knees and shook. Nightwing stood over him.
"You probably realize now that she's a lot scarier than I am." Nightwing said as he wiped the saliva off his face. "Start talking or I'll turn my back and let her do what she wants." The gang member held up his hands and shook his head.
"Hold on hold on hold on." He said. "I-I really don't know anything about this super guy who was killed."
"His name was Aqualad." Raven said.
"Right, I'm sorry, Aqualad." The gang leader said, not looking her in the face. "I never met him, and don't know who killed him. But I might know someone who does!" he quickly added. "One of you guys."
"Us guys?" Nightwing said.
"Not exactly like you, but… you know, a costumed… person." It sounded like he was going to say something else. "He's a criminal, been in the city for years. I did a job for him once, when I was starting out here."
"Who is it and where do we find him?" Nightwing said. The leader looked up at him and sighed.
"I'll tell you. Then just let me go to jail. Please."
A few miles away there was an old warehouse. A large, drab building. It was run down, and decrepit. Windows were boarded up. There was a sign over the door saying "Condemned, Keep Out". People seemed to avoid the place. There were various places like this in Jump City. Places that had fallen into decay and abandonment. Many people would likely pass by without giving it a second look. But this particular building was not what it appeared to be.
On the inside, the former warehouse had been converted into something else. New walls and partitions had been put up. The lights were also new, making the place look brighter (albeit more sterile) than one would expect. There were armed men walking around the outer part of the interior. Hired guns guarding the place. Deeper inside, were various rooms with tables and equipment. Machinery that was complex, but often with a handmade quality. There were a few men in jumpsuits moving things around, or working at computers. Despite the size of the building, the number of people working there actually wasn't that high. A good deal of the work was done by one man.
Somewhere near the center of the building was a large office, where the current "owner" of the building was working. A young man, working on a weapon on a table, with schematics on a board on the wall. A bald man in a green jumpsuit. A very short man. He tinkered with the weapon in the making using some tools, gently at first, but then a little more forcefully when he had trouble getting something to connect.
"Lousy, scuzzin… piece of shit." Gizmo said, muttering to himself. A few sparks flew as he worked on the tech. Suddenly, the lights went out. It was dark everywhere. Gizmo stopped and looked around. He sighed.
"Goddamnit, not again." He said. This warehouse experienced occasional blackouts. He waited for the backup generator to activate, as usual.
"I see you've learned a few new words." A voice said. Gizmo quickly spun around, although he couldn't see in the dark. He held up the tools for defense out of reflex. The lights then came on. Not all of them, just a few essentials. It was dimmer than before. But Gizmo now saw who it was.
"We want to talk to you, Gizmo." Nightwing said.
Nightwing stood in a corner of the dimmed room, the light casting shadows on his face. Raven stood in the opposite corner, her hood obscuring most of her face. They both stood there gazing at Gizmo as he, standing on a step stool, looked back at them with his back against the table. Gizmo blinked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
"You, what…" Gizmo stammered. "Guards!" he screamed.
"They're unavailable." Raven said.
"They were easy to take out." Nightwing said. "Not very professional for such a high-tech operation."
Gizmo sneered, and clenched his fists. "So, bird boy and bird girl suddenly came back to… what? Take me to jail? You can't prove anything." Even as he said this, his body was tense, and his jaw clenched.
"So, you recognize me?" Nightwing said.
Gizmo folded his arms. "Yeah, Nightrobin or whatever. I watch the news. I'll give you this: your new outfit is an improvement over that old circus costume you had before."
Nightwing clenched his jaw. "We need to ask you some questions." He said in a gruff tone.
"About what?" Gizmo said.
"The murder of Aqualad." Raven said.
"And who's behind it." Nightwing added.
Gizmo tilted his head, considering. "And what do I get for answering these questions?"
"Your health." Raven said. Gizmo scowled.
"You scuzzy shitheads think you can come into my base and threaten me?" he said, pointing a finger at them.
"Yeah, we do." Nightwing said.
"And watch your mouth." Raven said.
"Watch this!" As Gizmo said this he spun around, grabbed the weapon, and turned back to them all in one motion. The weapon was aimed at Nightwing.
"You don't want to-" Nightwing began. Before he could finish, Gizmo pulled the trigger. The weapon quickly powered up, a pulse emitting from the barrel. Raven went into a combat stance, and called her magic. Nightwing stood there, tensed. The weapon's power built and after a moment, it suddenly fizzled out. It stopped working, seemingly having short circuited. For a moment the three of them just stood there.
"Crud." Gizmo said. He was then hit in the face with one of Nightwing's sticks. He dropped the weapon, and Nightwing quickly ran to catch it. Nightwing backed up a step, holding the prototype. Gizmo held his bruised face in his hand, and looked at Nightwing through his fingers.
"Give that back." Gizmo said. Nightwing responded by gripping a part of it and snapping it off. Gizmo quickly raised his hand at Nightwing and made a fist. A laser shot from his sleeve. The blast was blocked by Raven, using her magic. She then used it on Gizmo himself, picking him up in the air.
"Let me go!" he said. The dark magic enshrouded him, except for his head, leaving him unable to attack. He struggled in vain against the magic. He then started cursing at Raven, calling her names. Gizmo was suddenly turned upside down, his head facing the floor several feet below.
"Are you sure you want me to let you go?" Raven said in a quiet voice, but with a hint of edge to it. Gizmo grit his teeth.
"You're bluffing." He said. He was suddenly released from the magic hold, and began to fall. Half a second later he was caught in the magic again, just a foot from the floor.
"Hey!" he said as he was lifted back into the air.
"Maybe this time I won't catch you in time." She said.
"You're heroes, you can't…" he said.
"Raven, stop." Nightwing said. "He's right. We don't go this far." Raven glanced at him, seeing his serious expression. Without saying a word, she returned Gizmo to his normal position, but still restrained. Nightwing then began to walk over to Gizmo's workstation, which featured cabinets housing some tech. Nightwing broke the glass on one of the cabinets. Gizmo began saying foul things again.
"We can destroy his things though." Nightwing said. He picked up some piece of tech Gizmo had, holding it for Gizmo to see.
"Put that down." Gizmo said. Nightwing threw it against a wall, breaking it. He then walked over to a few other things Gizmo had.
"Nice stuff you've got here." Nightwing said. "Be a shame if something happened to it."
"What are you, a hero or a mobster?" Gizmo said.
Nightwing shrugged. "Maybe tonight I feel like a wise guy." He reached for another thing Gizmo had worked on.
"Okay damnit, what do you want?" Gizmo said. He scowled and narrowed his eyes, looking at the floor. Nightwing turned to Raven and nodded. She slowly let him down.
"Don't try anything again." Nightwing said.
"Yeah yeah." Gizmo said. He was back on his feet now. He folded his arms and looked off to the side. "Alright, what is it?"
"Aqualad's murder, what do you know?" Nightwing said, getting to the point.
Gizmo shrugged. "Not much. He went around fighting dangerous people and got himself killed. It happens."
"We were told you know more than that." Raven said.
"Told by who?" Gizmo said irritably.
"Nevermind that." Nightwing said. "Just tell us what you know, or we'll be here all night. I don't think you want us to stay."
Gizmo lowered his head and sighed. "Fine. Look, I don't know who killed him, I swear. What I do know, is that his murder probably wasn't random. Your guy was lured here."
"What do you mean?" Nightwing said.
"There was a machine, a robot or something, in the water sending out pulses or something. It was wrecking things. That's what lured Fish Face there."
"Aqualad." Raven said. "And how do you know about this machine? Were you there?"
"No, I wasn't." Gizmo said. "But I have eyes and ears in different parts of the city, including the docks."
"Then did you see or hear the murder?" Nightwing said.
"I didn't have eyes in that alley. But I did see the robot, sort of. I don't build that sort of machine, but I can do cameras."
"How many of these cameras do you have?" Nightwing said.
Gizmo paused. "Uh, not that many. Just a few."
"Uh huh." Nightwing said. "You were saying?"
"Anyway, this robot was small. It had a red eye, or something that looked like an eye."
"Red eye…" Nightwing said.
"Yeah. It moved pretty fast. It didn't seem like it was designed for fighting or anything. Just making waves in the water and running. I saw Aqualad chase it into the alleys. After that… I don't know."
"So, it was a robot." Raven said. "Are you sure you didn't have anything to do with this?"
Gizmo sneered. "Listen you dumb bi-" The look on Raven's face made him stop. Gizmo sighed. "Like I said, I don't build those kinds of machines. Check around if you want. Its not like I can stop you."
"Maybe we will." Raven said.
"No, that's not necessary." Nightwing said. Raven's expression was unreadable under the hood, but she said nothing.
"Then can you leave me alone?" Gizmo said.
Nightwing walked around the room, looking at the equipment. "Do you still have the footage from the night of the murder?"
Gizmo scowled. "I don't know. I usually don't keep old footage like that for long. But… I could check. If I have it, will you go away?"
"That depends. Is there anything else we should know? I'd hate to have to come back."
"This is all I know." Gizmo said irritably. He walked over to a cabinet, and opened it. He reached in and pulled out a laptop computer. It took him a minute to open it and start it up. He typed something into the keyboard. After a minute, he turned back to them. "Okay, here it is." He hit the enter button. A video started playing. It wasn't a very clear video. But it was definitely the docks at night. They saw a few people on the docks. Everything seemed normal at first. After a minute, the waves in the sea became violent, and started crashing onto the pier. Things started shaking, and breaking apart. After a short while, things calmed down. A small thing jumped out of the water onto land. This was followed by a blurry figure, presumably Aqualad. They saw Aqualad chase the robot, and then they both disappeared around a corner. The video stopped.
"That's it?" Nightwing said.
"What do you think?" Gizmo said. He closed up the laptop. "Are we done now?" Nightwing and Raven exchanged a glance.
"Yeah, we're done." Nightwing said. "We'll be going now. Just don't give us a reason to come back here." Nightwing and Raven both walked out the door, not bothering to try a disappearing act.
As Gizmo watched them leave, he said, "Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out!"
After leaving Gizmo's hideout, Nightwing and Raven put some distance between themselves and that place. After traveling about a mile, they stopped at a gas station. There was no one there, since it was so late. The station looked like it had seen better days, just like the rest of the neighborhood. Some of the lights didn't work, and there was litter on the ground. But it was still functional. They only needed to get gas. Nightwing took the opportunity to refill his bike, while Raven stood nearby. Nightwing selected the type of gas to use, while Raven let her hood down. The night air blew through her long hair. It was a little chillier than usual at this time of year. She looked over at Nightwing for a long moment. He noticed.
"What?" he asked.
"Aren't you cold?" she said. "That outfit… doesn't look very warm." Nightwing's outfit was skintight, showing off his muscular physique, and leaving little to the imagination. He grinned at her.
"Look who's talking. Your outfit is pretty revealing." He said. Besides the cloak and hood, Raven's outfit consisted of a pair of short boots, and a high-cut tight fitting leotard, leaving her legs bare. But instead of getting embarrassed, Raven gave a faint smile back to him.
"At least I have a cloak." She said. As if on cue, the wind picked up and blew against her, causing her cloak to lift and spread out. This caused her cloak to look like the spread wings of a raven, while also having the effect of showing off her figure. Raven spread her arms wide, not minding the wind. The two of them stood like that for a long moment. The moment was interrupted when the gas pump made a noise. The gas tank in Nightwing's bike was full. Nightwing put the nozzle away, as Raven stepped closer to get away from the wind. Nightwing started to get on his bike.
"Wait." She said. Nightwing paused and looked at her.
"What is it?" he said.
Raven's cloak once again covered her body, but her hood was still down. Her expression was serious. "I wanted to tell you something. What happened in there, when I threatened Gizmo… I'm sorry if I went too far. I was only trying to scare him. I wasn't going to hurt him."
Nightwing looked down at the ground, and slowly nodded. "I know. I trust you. Its just… When I saw you threaten to drop him like that, with him hanging upside down… it reminded me of something. Someone." He sat there on his bike, looking pensive.
"Do you want to talk about it?" said Raven.
"I don't." Nightwing said. Raven nodded.
"Not tonight." Nightwing added. "Maybe… I'll tell you about it some other time."
"Okay." She said. She looked out at the highway. The streets were quiet at this time. Only an occasional car passed by, the glow of the headlights briefly illuminating the road, and then passing by.
"Hey, Raven." Nightwing said. She turned her head to him. "Do you remember when Beast Boy showed up the other day?"
"How could I forget?" she said drily.
"Right before he showed up, you were going to ask me something. Remember?"
Raven stood there a moment, looking at nothing in particular. She slowly nodded. "I… think so."
"It just sounded like it was something important. So, what did you want to ask?"
Raven stood there, her lips parted. She glanced down at the ground, and then back at him. She said nothing.
"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine." He shrugged.
"Its not that I don't want to." She said.
"Is it something personal?"
Raven tilted her head slightly. "You could say that."
"Just ask. I won't judge."
Raven hesitated. She then looked him in the eye. "Nightwing, do you-"
Another sudden noise. This time from the communicators. Nightwing picked his up. Raven stood there with her mouth open as he answered it, and then quickly closed her mouth.
"Nightwing here." He said.
"Hey, its Cyborg. Just letting you know me and Bee have been working hard on the systems, and I think we've got most of the important stuff up and running again. We're going to start working on something that should hopefully let us contact Starfire. If it works, we might see her again real soon."
Nightwing paused for a moment.
"Nightwing, do you copy?"
"Yeah. Sounds good. Keep working. We'll see you soon." Nightwing closed the communicator. His expression was hard to read. He sat there for a minute gripping the handles on the bike, until Raven cleared her throat. He turned to her, and then turned back to the road.
"It'll be good to see Starfire again." He said. "Assuming this works."
"Yeah. It's been a long time." Raven said quietly. She grabbed her hood and pulled it over her head.
"Should we go out again and see if we can find anything else out tonight?" Nightwing said. "Or would you rather head back?"
Raven inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. "I'm actually starting to get tired. I wouldn't mind some sleep."
"Okay. Let's head back then." He started his bike, and it started purring beneath him. He gripped the handles. He then paused and looked over at Raven.
"I guess you don't want to ride with me?" he said. Raven said no. "I didn't think so. Let's go then."
Cyborg turned the wrench, tightening the last nut. He had been working on this part of the tower systems for a while, but now it was done. He put the wrench down, and stood up. He took a survey of the ops room. It was a little messy at the moment. There were some tools scattered about, and a few old parts they had needed to replace. And a few soda cans here and there. Bumblebee was sitting on one of the chairs, sweaty and a little dirty. She was leaning back, looking over at Cyborg.
"Is that everything?" she asked. Cyborg, with his hands on his hips, looked back at the equipment he was just working on, and nodded.
"Yeah, I think so. Everything really important, anyway. The other stuff can wait."
Bumblebee stood up and stretched. She moved her head side to side, cracking her neck. "Yeah, but not that thing you want to build to contact Starfire. That has to be done sooner than later."
"Well, yeah." Cyborg said. "It's getting late, so we probably won't be able to finish that tonight. But I'd like to at least start on it. We should be able to finish it tomorrow though. I've got all the schematics laid out, and I think I've got all the parts needed. If not, I can pick some up tomorrow. But first, let me just call Nightwing and Raven. Let them know what's going on."
Cyborg talked with them for a minute, and then they got back to work. The two of them left the room, and came back a few minutes later with the parts, bringing them in in a few trips. They laid everything out in a corner of the room, where it would hopefully be out of the way.
"So, you didn't explain exactly what this is." Bumblebee said as she laid the parts down. "It doesn't look like a communication device. You won't be able to talk to her through this thing."
"Not directly, no." Cyborg said. He was now on one knee arranging things. "Tamaran is a little too far for that. But what I'm going to try to do is send a recorded message to Tamaran, and hopefully they'll pick it up."
"You've got a way to send that faster than light?" Bumblebee raised an eyebrow.
"I think so. I've managed to pick up some alien tech over the years. I'm incorporating some of that here."
"Alright, so tell me how you plan to do it." She said. He explained to her how he intended it to work as he put the most basic parts together. Bumblebee offered some thoughts of her own as he talked.
"Okay, this sounds good in theory. But it might help if you triangulate it to bounce off of satellites and…" They continued to talk technical stuff as they worked. After another twenty minutes they had the frame finished. Bumblebee, now on her feet, wiped her brow.
"Man, I'm going to need a shower after this."
"That's one advantage of being mostly metal." Cyborg said. "Don't need to shower. Still got to brush my teeth though." Bumblebee chuckled.
"So, Cyborg." Bumblebee said. "What have you been up to these past few years?"
Cyborg shrugged. "Oh, this and that."
Bumblebee raised an eyebrow again. "Oh, you don't want talk?"
"That's not it." Cyborg said. "I just don't think it's that interesting."
"I'm interested." She said. Cyborg shrugged.
"Okay. I travelled for a while, trying to do some solo hero stuff. With varying degrees of success. Eventually, I decided to try improving myself. Mentally I mean, not physically. I went to get a science degree."
"Well, I know you're a genius." She said. "You don't need a degree to prove that."
"Its not about proving anything. It's about having options."
"Yeah, I get that." She said. "I think that's why my team broke up. They wanted other options. Not that I'm trying to make it about me."
"No, that's okay." He said. He continued working, but at a slow pace so he could talk to her. "Tell me about it."
Bumblebee leaned back against a wall, and looked up at the ceiling. "Well… Mas and Menos decided they wanted to go back to their home country. I haven't heard from them since. Don't know what they're doing, or if they're even still in the hero business. And Speedy… He moved to a different part of the country. I think he goes by Red Arrow now. He wanted to do the solo hero thing too."
"A lot of that going around." Cyborg said.
"I mean, I'm happy for them, if that's what they want." She said. She folded her arms and lowered her eyes. "I guess I kind of hoped they'd show up here though."
"Maybe they wanted to, but they can't for some reason. Or, maybe they don't even know what happened. There's a lot going on in the world."
"Yeah, but Aqualad… we were like a family. At least, I thought so…" For a minute there was silence. They gradually started working again. After another minute, Bumblebee broke the silence.
"So, how about your team?" she asked. "Why did you guys break up? Did everyone want to spread their wings and see the world? Or was there some drama there?" She smirked as she said this.
Cyborg stopped working, and looked up at her. "Actually… there was some drama, yeah. A lot, in fact." There was another moment of silence. Cyborg looked at nothing in particular.
"Oh." Bumblebee said. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked."
"I don't mind you asking." Cyborg said, holding up a hand. "Its just… hard to talk about. And I'm pretty sure its still a sore spot for Nightwing."
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious." She said. "But its up to you if you want to talk about it. Maybe it would help if you did."
Cyborg stood up and sighed. "Look, I'll just say this. We went to Tamaran a few years ago, on a mission. There was stuff going down, involving Starfire's family. Not for the first time, but this was different. We got involved, tried to help. But… things got bad. Real bad. After all was said and done, the Teen Titans came back to earth… without Starfire. It was never the same after that. We… the team broke up a few months later." While speaking about this, Cyborg looked off in the distance, as if he were reliving these events. Cyborg closed his eyes, and rubbed his face with his fingers.
Bumblebee stood there with an uncharacteristic awkwardness. "…I'm sorry. I don't know exactly what happened, but if you ever want to talk about it…" She reached a hand over and touched his shoulder. Before Cyborg could say anything, the door to the room opened. Cyborg and Bumblebee turned, and saw Nightwing and Raven enter. Nightwing walked in first, quickly noticing all the mess.
"Looks like you two have been really busy." He said.
"I know it looks bad now." Cyborg said. "But it's really not that much. We'll just need to leave this stuff here for tonight, and then finish up in the morning." Cyborg yawned as he finished his sentence. A moment later, Bumblebee also yawned.
"Now you get me yawning too." She said. Raven walked in at that moment and saw everything scattered about.
"Guess I'll be going to my room then." She said.
"We should all probably get some sleep." Nightwing said.
"Good idea." Cyborg said.
"You guys mind if I take another shower first?" Bumblebee said, stepping up next to Cyborg.
"Go ahead, as long as Beast Boy's not using it." Nightwing said.
"I'm pretty sure he's in his room listening to music, or something." Cyborg said. They all left the room, and turned out the lights, leaving the mess for the morning.
A few hours passed. The titans were asleep in their own rooms. The tower was quiet again. Outside the tower, the sound of crickets could be heard. There was an owl hooting in the trees across from the tower. It was the dead of night, when most people were asleep. But one man stood outside the tower, looking at it from across the water. He had been standing there for several minutes, deciding what his next move should be. Should he just go right up to the tower now, or wait until later, when they were awake? The man now known as Red Arrow considered this for a few more minutes.
He had heard about Aqualad's death… or rather, his murder, some time ago. But he had had business to take care of in his city. He couldn't get away right away. But now he was here. He decided that making contact with his old friends would be a good first step. He knew they were here. He wanted to find this person who had killed his old friend. He wanted to… Red Arrow heard something behind him. It was faint, and many people would probably not have noticed. But Red Arrow was not just any person. He spun around, saw something lunging at him, and quickly dodged it. It was a knife. Red Arrow jumped back, and quickly drew his bow. He saw the attacker. A man dressed in all black. Red Arrow briefly wondered if this was the killer. But he knew he didn't have time to think about that right now. He had to take the man down, and then ask questions.
The masked man ran at him, but Arrow was able to load his bow and shoot an arrow faster than most. He fired the arrow, and the masked man dodged it, while still moving. The arrow hit the ground nearby. But this was an exploding arrow. It went off almost instantly, exploding behind the man, and causing him to fall over on the ground. The man fell face first. When he looked up, he saw Red Arrow pointing another arrow at his head, the bow drawn back.
"That was easy." Red Arrow said. "Now, put your hands behind your back."
The masked man lay on his stomach, looking up at Arrow. "Nice trick. It won't work a second time." He said, his voice sounding electronic.
"There won't be a second time, and I won't ask again." Arrow said. He suddenly felt a sharp, intense pain in his hand. Something hit it, causing him to jerk the bow to the side and release the arrow. It hit the ground beside the attacker. This arrow was an ordinary one and did not explode. The masked man grabbed for Arrow's legs, and almost tripped him, but Arrow managed to roll away. The man got up, but Arrow tossed a small explosive with his other hand. Arrow ran as the explosive went off.
Arrow panted, and glanced at his hand. He pulled the knife out. This would make it hard to use his bow. Where did it come from? He heard running, and turned to see the attacker coming at him. Arrow pulled out a stick, similar to what Nightwing might use. The attacker threw punches and kicks at him. The man managed to grab Arrow's arms, and was pressing forward to pin him to the ground. But Arrow reared back and headbutted him, cracking the man's goggles. The man staggered back. Red Arrow needed to finish this. He reared back, preparing to take the man out. But he felt something impact his spine. He gasped, and fell to his knees. He then felt a second blow to the back of his head. He could feel the tow of the boot against his cheek as the blow connected. Someone had kicked him, from behind, twice. The masked man hadn't hit him, because he was still in front of Arrow. Arrow, dazed from the attacks, turned his head to his side, and saw another attacker in black. There were two of them. Arrow quickly grabbed his communicator, but before he could say anything he was kicked in the face. Within seconds, both attackers were on him, assaulting him.
This went on for a minute. Red Arrow had been beaten badly. He felt himself rolled onto the ground, face down. He then felt a cloth pressing against his face. It smelled. He knew what it was. He struggled, but with both attackers holding him down, he couldn't do much. After a minute, he stopped struggling. As his consciousness faded, he felt himself being lifted up and carried somewhere by both of them. He was vaguely aware of being put into a vehicle of some sort. The last thing he heard was the engine starting up.
Seconds later, they were all gone.