Nightwing: Heartless

Part 41: Concert

"Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!" Chris and Abby jumped up and down, downing another shot. Abby screamed and jumped on Willa, "do you want one?"

"I'd rather remember the concert," Willa teased as they all walked towards the arena. Abby shrugged and ran back to Chris. Kate and Ethan were in front of her, Dick trailed behind, on his phone. It was probably some superhero situation.

School was almost out, which meant sun, crop tops, and concerts. Wrong Foot, Right Foot, the band, was playing the biggest arena in Gotham and they had all gotten tickets. In the nosebleeds, but still, it was exciting. They made their way through security and all the way up to their seats. Kate groaned at how far they were from the stage but Abby and Chris were okay, they were just here for a good time. It had been a minute since they had all hung out, with finals approaching and Dick always being busy.

Dick finally put his phone away and joined in on the fun. He didn't drink of course, he was always on call, his words, but he didn't need drinks to have fun. He laughed along with the group, one arm lazily around the back of Willa's chair, her hand on his knee.

Kate noticed and smiled at her friend, which made Willa blush for some reason. The start of the concert drove the thought from her head as the crowd roared, rising to their feet as the band took the stage. The group was sweaty by intermission. They couldn't really hear the words all the way up here but they got the gist and loved the beat. It felt so good to sit down and Willa tucked her legs under her. Dick was scanning the crowd below, though, eyes focused, not sitting down.

Willa stood up next to him and lowered her voice, "what's wrong?"

Dick shook his head, "don't know yet. I think we should go, though."

Willa looked over the railing, just seeing thousands of people bustling around. "I don't know-" the ground shook violently and Willa lurched to the side, into Dick's waiting arms. They were kneeling now as the ground continued to shake. He put his body over hers as parts of the ceiling began to fall and people began to scream.

When the shaking stopped, Kate raised her head slowly, "was that an earthquake?"

Dick was looking over the railing again, but this time Willa could see what he was looking at. A man in a gold metal suit was standing on stage, some device in his hands. "Quakemaster," Dick muttered as the man took the microphone, the band cowering across the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to rock?" Then he laughed and pressed the device to the ground and caused the arena to start shaking again. People below them screamed as the ceiling shook bits of cement and metal down.

"They need help," Willa yelled at Dick, who was already standing up, "go." He nodded and melted into the crowd of people running as best they could for their lives. To anyone who wasn't watching, it looked like he just disappeared.

The ground seemed to lurch as Willa and her friends were making their way back to the exit, throwing all of them tumbling down the stairs to the front of the section. Willa groaned but scrambled to her knees, helping Abby up, who was a little unsteady on her feet before the ground started moving.

She looked over her shoulder and saw Dick, well, Nightwing, appear on the scene. He was flipping through the different labels, saving people falling off of railings and from chunks of falling ceiling, all while throwing the bat-a-rang things at Quakemaster, who lifted parts of the earth to shield himself.

"Look! It's Nightwing!" Ethan shouted, in awe despite the situation.

"How did he get here so fast?" Chris shouted and ran to the railing to see the hero.

The guy on stage, Quakemaster is what Dick called him, was starting to get angry, and started throwing chunks of earth in Nightwing's direction and intensifying the shaking. Abby screamed in Willa's arms, leaning on her friend for support. Willa watched the ground crack between her and the boys.

"Chris! Ethan!" She yelled. Ethan looked down and ran and jumped off the collapsing ground. Kate screamed as he landed and scrambled up. Others down the row noticed to and ran off, which unfortunately intensified the crack in Chris's area. He saw the ground splintering and fell to his knees, looking queasy.

"Chris! You have to jump!" Willa yelled and handed Abby off to Kate and Chris, who were slowly backing up as the splinters made their way up. The section was going down, and the corner with Ethan still trapped was going to fall. Soon.

Willa crawled toward her friend and stopped just before reaching the crack in the cement, trying not to put weight on the cracks. She extended a hand, "take my hand!" He looked up frantically and reached forward but he was about six inches too far away. They both strained but it was no use. "Chris, you have to come closer!"

"I c-c-can't!" He screamed as the section dipped down, the support on the bottom probably starting to give out. It rocked the whole section and Willa could only hope everyone else was far enough away. Willa looked past Chris, at Nightwing throwing some bomb that detonated a sticky substance on the ceiling, filling the cracks to stop the whole building coming down while pulling people to safety. He looked up briefly at Willa and took in Chris's situation. He processed in half a second and launched himself towards Quakemaster.

Chris screamed again and closed his eyes as the ground dipped lower. Willa didn't think, she just leaped forward and grabbed Chris's outstretched hand with both of hers, using her momentum to switch their places and throw Chris to safety. Chris stumbled to where Willa was, but the release of his weight flung Willa backwards, crashing her weight into the railing as the support completely gave way and the ground disappeared from under her.

Willa gasped and reached out to grab something, but nothing was there, she was falling. She looked over and made eye contact with Dick, watching him change direction immediately, coming for her.

She grunted as Nightwing's body hit hers, sending them both flying into a wall, but Dick turned them so he was the one who hit. He dove a stick gadget thing into the wall that embedded itself and slowed their descent until they reached the ground. "Stay here," Dick growled and ran towards the stage again, leaping and flipping between uneven ground and chunks of rock until he jumped on stage and flipped over Quakemaster, pressing a disc on his device and shorted it out. Nightwing grabbed his head and smashed it against his knee, knocking the man out cold. It was over within a minute.

Dick made his way back to Willa, giving her a hand up now that the ground had stopped moving. He raised an eyebrow, "who's the superhero here?"

Willa blushed, "I just reacted."

Dick sighed and hugged her, "I told you I'd always catch you."