Slowly, but surely Nightwing awoke, and took in the room around
him. A massively framed man stood in the far corner, his
golden locks hung down loosely giving him an almost girlish
appearance. To the right was a desk where Agent Cisco Blaine
sat, and in his hands he held one of Nightwing's escrima sticks.
"You know, you should really reveal where you get this equipment from,"
he said.
Nightwing tried to lean forward, but some one twice as strong pulled
him back into the seat. He could feel large fingers grab his long black
locks, and jerk his head back to look Agent Blaine in the eyes.
"I see you have your own grunts," said Nightwing. "What are they on,
Venom?"
Agent Blaine got off the table and crouched within eye level of him; he
pointed to the brute in the far corner.
"What do you think?"
"I think I made a mistake helping you bring down Blockbuster."
Agent Blaine stood up and nodded to the man holding Nightwing in the
chair. Almost immediately he began to feel pressure on his
shoulders, which caused him to grit his teeth. The large
brute tightened his grip, and Nightwing screamed out.
"Seems you don't have the pain tolerance of the bat," said Blaine,
"which is a shame because I had hoped to prolong this."
The moment the pain in his shoulders ceased, Nightwing used the
wingding in his hand to start cutting the ropes binding his
hands. He looked Blaine in the eyes, sweat beading down his
brow.
"Tell me something Blaine," said Nightwing. "What is you really want
for the 'haven?"
"Total emancipation from the criminal element," said Blaine. "We want
to control the drug trade, and the rackets that organized crime has in
their possession in order to bury them. And vigilantes like
you and nuts like Blockbuster make that difficult."
"So, that's where Soames comes in," said Nightwing. "He's your way in."
"Yes, but he's not so easily controlled. Either way you won't
be much of a problem anymore."
Agent Blaine bent down and cut the ropes binding Nightwing's feet,
while the hulking goon behind him tore the ropes that bound his hands.
"You're letting me go?" asked Nightwing.
"We have all we need," said Blaine. "Tell Oracle it was nice meeting
her."
Nightwing's face darkened, and he leapt at Blaine only to be caught by
his collar and slammed into the floor, hard.
"I guess there's a lot of fight in you, but we won't have to worry
about you anymore," said Blaine, as Nightwing started to black out.
Scarlet peeked through the curtain making sure that no one would bother
Dudley while he was sleeping off the effects of whatever drug Agent
Blaine gave him. And as she turned to look at him she noticed
that he was not so peaked, as he was the day before. A knock
on the cabin door took her attention, and she pulled out the 44 magnum
that Dudley gave her, and pulled the door back to create a small slit
like opening for her to look out.
Outside stood a black haired Amazon with a white streak on her front
bangs. She looked down at Scarlet and bent down.
Scarlet's eyes widened as she took in the size of Dudley's ex-wife.
"Is Dudley here?" asked Aleta.
"Yeah, and you must be Aleta," said Scarlet.
"Yes."
"Come in," she said, taking a step back to allow larger woman inside.
"I see you keep a, how do you say it, hospitable home," said Aleta, as
she looked over the dirty dishes, and bottles of whine all over the
place.
"You can do better?" asked Scarlet.
"I am better," said Aleta, as she shoved her coat into Scarlet's gut,
and went about cleaning up the place.
Scarlet looked at the coat, which smelled of cinnamon and threw it on
the floor.
"What the fuck, bitch," said Scarlet. "I'm not your maid."
Aleta turned to Scarlet and the muscles in her jaw tightened.
"Do you have a problem with me?" asked Aleta. "Because we can surely
settle this."
"Yes, I do."
The dirty dishes hit Scarlet in the face so fast that she had no time
to react, and when she started to fall backwards, Aleta grabbed the
front of her shirt.
"I think you are a nuisance," she said, "and I don't tolerate
nuisances."
"Enough, Aleta!"
Both turned to see Dudley standing at the foot of the staircase in his
pajama bottoms. He walked over to the two bickering women,
and placed a hand on Aleta's shoulder.
"Let her go."
Her grip loosened, and Scarlet fell to the floor coughing.
She turned to Dudley, and examined his face.
"What happened to you?" she asked. "Who did this to you?"
"Some one I thought I could manipulate," he said, and took hold of her
hands. "But looks like I was the patsy."
"So, what will you do now?"
"I need to buy time until I am recovered. I have left the deputy mayor
in charge."
He stepped away from her, and helped Scarlet up. "But until I am
recovered, we make plans; we strategize, and find out what Agent Blaine
is really up to, and then we turn the tables on him."
Scarlet looked at Aleta and Aleta looked at Dudley who held Scarlet up.
"Can you two get along until then?"
Aleta nodded her head, and went to get a broom to clean up the
mess. Dudley helped Scarlet to the couch in the living room,
and laid her down.
"Rest here for bit, I'll be needing you soon."
"Whatever you say, Dudley."
After he left, she looked to Aleta, and her eyes narrowed.
Nightwing awoke inside of the Nightbird; the seat was popped back, and
he was parked outside of Metropolis city limits. He raised
the seat up, and saw the sign, which had Superman on it, and his eyes
widened behind the nightvision lens of his domino mask.
Pressing a stud on the Nightbird's dash revealed a computer link up
that brought him in direct contact with Oracle.
"Oracle, are you there?"
For several moments her voice didn't come on the other end, and he
started to worry. But, then he finally heard a wisp of her
talking to someone before she answered.
I
read you, Nightwing. I just spoke with Agent
Blaine. Bludhaven is being taken care of, and as an act of
mercy he let you go.
"Did you have something to do with this?" he asked, rubbing his
brow. "Your old connections to the squad by chance."
Maybe.
The thing is Nightwing that I believe Blaine is on the up and
up. I honestly believe he will save Bludhaven. And
if it works out, we won't have to watch friends get killed while being
mocked by the media as nothing, but vigilantes. Every day we
have friends defending the people from the worst of the worst; but the
price is too great. If the FBI and the police--
"--ENOUGH!" he said. His face started to turn red as he was losing his
temper. "This won't work, Oracle. It never
works. The Special Crimes Unit never worked in Gotham, and
Metropolis. So, there is no way this will work."
You're
being too cynical, and you are starting to sound like him.
"Am I?" he asked, and looked into the rear view mirror. "I
think I’m being realistic. The police and FBI have
better things to do than be killed by the psychotics we deal
with. They don't have the training, or the right experience
to handle the situations we are up against."
You
could give them that training, Nightwing. So could he if he
wasn't so stubborn.
"Sorry, Oracle, but I think you are way more optimistic than I am."
Whatever
you do, Man Wonder... don't go back to Bludhaven... they have a warrant
out for your arrest, and they have a sample of your blood to run
through their system should you get caught.
Nightwing slapped the steering wheel and looked out the window where he
saw a streak of red and blue fly by. He then started the car
up.
"Bye Oracle," he said.
And then drove off in the other direction away from Metropolis.
Deputy Mayor Kristian Sharp stood in his office looking at the reports
of the concessions the mayor's office had had to make to gain the FBI's
backing. He signed several papers that ratified the funding
of a stronger police force that would be bolstered by shock troops
provided by the FBI's Crime Prevention Squad. All that was
required now was for it to be signed by Mayor Soames. Since
the city legislature had already approved it, there was no doubt the
law would be passed quickly. But, as Kristian set down the
last paper, a blade punctured through his Adam's Apple, and then it was
turned to where it cut clean through the arteries on the right side of
his neck. His blood spurted in geysers as he was shoved to
the floor by the assassin Kasumi.
She felt along the papers on the desk, unable to read them due to her
blindness, but she could make out the sound of the answering machine
beeping. Gliding her hand along the phone she pressed the
button, and listened to the tape wind back.
"Hey Kristian, this is Soames. I'm down and out with a flu of some
sort, so I won't be back into work for a while. If you need
to get in touch with me, you can call 324-7168, extension 2.
See you when I get back."
After the tape stopped, and rewound, the door creaked open, and Kasumi
fled out the window as the secretary walked in to see Sharp's dead body.
The Nightbird pulled up into a gas station just six miles away from the
Eastern State penitentiary. Dick got out wearing some fresh
clothes, and went inside of the station to pay for his gas.
When he came out he had three two-gallon jugs of water, and a
nurtrigrain bar that he put in the back. He then took the cap
off the gas tank, and stuck the nozzle in to fill up his
tank. With his back leaned against the car, he started
thinking about the war games that Soames and Blaine were
playing. How the people they are claiming to protect will be
put in harm's way; and how his visit to Eastern State will be his
second clash with the devil named Blockbuster.
To
be Continued... Next Issue: THE
DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND NEVERMORE:
Faster,
and faster the world slips away from me; hope becomes an elusive thing,
and I look to the shadows for they embrace me. I've become
lost within my own misery.
