Alcatraz breakout, cont.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

Robin's figured out who was behind the Alcatraz breakout and gave assistance to the most dangerous metahuman prisoners. Mammoth and Shimmer.

Where there's one, there's the other, and both are tied to Dr. Light. The question is if they're still here gloating, or if they're long gone. Nightwing glances down at the small device in his hand that shows his daughter's condition.

It's worsening.

Fingers close over it once more, a new and cold determination taking hold.

"Nightwing to all Titans. Mammoth and Shimmer are behind this breakout, and we've got reason to believe they're still here. We find them, it's a short hop to find Light. Omen - do your thing. Flush these pieces of filth out."

Comments

[jessequick.livejournal.com]

Which brings Jesse to a dead stop, and after a lungful of the gas, she holds her breath and starts to move as fast as she can manage to disperse it.

[blackknightone.livejournal.com]

Slater sprints through the gas, his mask sealed against such toxins. As he exits the gas, Nightwing's flashbangs go off and he sees the opening. He sprints harder to get behind Shimmer pulling a cord from his arm holster. Wrapping it around his hands to prepare a garrot.

[monstersociety.livejournal.com]

She doesn't close her eyes in time to avoid the bright flashes, and the kick to the head rattles her teeth. Shimmer opens her eyes, trying to focus, but spots are swimming before her.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

And Nightwing is on her like white on rice, and angry beyond measure.

If you know what's good for you, you'll tell me where Light is, he hisses, pinning her down with his full weight advantage, grabbing a fistful of her hair.

[monstersociety.livejournal.com]

Despite the pain, she leers up at him. "Never did know what was good for me, yank." She can almost make out his face ... wonder how he'd feel if that mask of his turned to acid?

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

It burns, and he can smell his own flesh searing from his face. Doesn't matter. He tears it from his face. That'll earn her an enraged punch to the temple.

TELL ME, GODDAMMIT.

Now that she can see his face, she'll see his eyes, and they're burning more than any acid can produce. He's at the end of his patience, and his daughter is about to die, and he'll be damned if he'll let this piece of crap dictate what happens to her.

[blackknightone.livejournal.com]

Slater slows as he approaches, once he sees that Nightwing has her on the ground he lets him have her. They start yelling and Nightwing rips off his mask. This isn't a normal moment for Nightwing and Slater sees it. He turns his back and lets this take it's course.

[damage-granted.livejournal.com]

Getting back up to his feet, Damage glances down at Mammoth, then turns and spits on the ground, wiping at his mouth with the back of a gloved hand. Despite the fact that his injuries are flaring with renewed pain, he actually enjoyed putting the big lug on his back.

Turning in the direction of Shimmer, Grant's eyes widen in surprise at what he sees - Nightwing, poised over her, slamming his fist into the side of the woman's head. Slater might be able to turn his back, but Damage can't, even as the older Titan tears his mask off his face. He averts his eyes, keeping them focused on the mask as it bubbles on the ground.

"Nightwing...?" he says, taking a single step forward, keeping his eyes down. Damage has known Nightwing for years, but he's never seen him this angry.

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He's had enough. He's watched Mary deteriorate, seen the anguish in his wife's eyes at having to send her away to the Watchtower, dealt with Selina's torment at having to witness her get sicker and sicker; and worse, he's broken the Bat in a way he never dreamed he could be capable of. He's sleep-deprived, exhausted emotionally and physically, and he's a hair's breadth from the edge.

And he wants answers.

He punches her again. And again.

WHERE IS HE?!

[blackknightone.livejournal.com]

Slater hears the repeated punches to the head and sneaks a peek. What he sees alarms him and makes him dive between Shimmer and Nightwing. He wrestles Nightwing not worried about avoiding blows. His just trying to get him off Shimmer.

"What's gotten into you?!"

[jessequick.livejournal.com]

After finishing dispersing what remains of the poison cloud, Jesse falls to her hands and knees near the others, hacking, eyes closed and streaming while she tries to use the Speed Force to work the poison through her system. For the moment, gasping and retching, she's down and only dimly aware of her friend and leader going, in a word, apeshit close by.

[middle-amazon.livejournal.com]

Slater will only get hurt. She's seen this mood before, but never this extreme. First, there's a hand on Black Knight shoulder briefly. Then there's two on Nightwing's back.

"She's down..."

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

No. He hasn't had enough yet. He wrestles Slater's attempt to pull him off, Shimmer's bloody, broken leer spurring him to new levels of temper.

He can feel the blood soaking his knuckles under the leather of his gloves as he continues to lay into her, blow after blow, his voice raw and vengeful; he can only see Mary in her incubator weakening by the moment--

TELL ME!

[damage-granted.livejournal.com]

That's it. No more. Damage doesn't have the first clue about the deeper issues that are affecting Nightwing at this point - his wife, his daughter, his mentor. All he sees is his teammate, a mentor and a teacher, pummeling the life out of some spiteful villain, just like Light wants them all to do, to prove that Earth's heroes aren't heroic.

"Nightwing, she's done! It's over! STOP!" Damage yells, turning toward Nightwing, the aura around his fists flaring brightly. But it's clear that the older Titan is beyond reach, beyond reason, beyond words. "STOP IT!"

Damage lunges forward then, trying to wrap his arms around the other man, drive him to the ground, get him away from Shimmer, anything to make him stop, to bring him back to his sense.

[jessequick.livejournal.com]

Hoarse from coughing and retching, weak and dizzy from the concussion and this new nonsense, Jesse doesn't look to be getting up too soon. But she can speak, hissing a comment to Nightwing.

"This...isn't...what your family...would want to see...you doing."

[-nightwing-.livejournal.com]

He falls backwards with Damage on the ground. Shimmer is out cold, bloodied and bruised, her face swollen almost beyond recognition. He struggles for a moment, but at Jesse's words, he ceases his momentum, going limp in the younger man's grasp.

The adrenalin is rapidly wearing off. His face hurts, stings, burns. His knuckles are on fire.

They're no closer to Light now than when they started.

He shrugs Damage off, and drops down in the dirt. The desire to inflict hurt is gone; with his own will to live. He's let them all down, and that hurts him more than any physical wound.

I'm sorry...

[middle-amazon.livejournal.com]

Wordlessly, Troia is there. Her hands pull him up and then go to his face.

"I know," and she does. "Focus," she whispers. "Please.

[jessequick.livejournal.com]

Donna's there. Thank God. So much strength, and not all of it - not even most of it - from her Amazonian physique. Sometime Jesse needs to tell her friend how much she brings to the team.

Later.

For now, passing out feels like the right thing to do. She won't be doing superspeed stunts with a head injury again soon...at least when poisonous gas is involved.