The Blue Sparrow

Chapter 20

    “You’re shaking.” Roy said. “Can you walk?”

    As soon as I tried my legs gave out on me; Roy caught me before I fell. “Thanks.”

    As soon as we were inside our train car and in our uniforms Dick pulled out a drive and said, “It’s not a complete debacle. I picked Parasite’s pocket; I got this flash drive.” He plugged it into his glove computer and hacked it. “Looks like Parasite’s working for Intergang. Everything he’s stolen; they’re pieces of something! They’re putting together a weapon that generates…blackholes?”

    “Oh, come on.” Roy said crossing his arms. “To build that you need a particle accelerator!”

    “Like the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva?” Dick asked rhetorically.

    “The circus’ next stop.” He realized. “But now that Parasite can fly, he’s got a big head start on us.”

    “M’Gann looked down. “Sorry.”

    “Not your fault.” I replied weakly. “But this thing could wipe out entire cities.” I slowly stood up. “We need to hurry.”   

    “You, Robin, and I need to hurry.” Roy said, reaching for his spare bow. “Without powers, the others would hold us back. Besides, are you even feeling up for it?”

    “I’ll manage. Powers or not, I’m still useful.” I replied. “You’re the one who taught me how to defend myself, remember?”

    He nodded with a hint of a blush, causing me to smirk.

    “Well then, you might need this.” He handed me a navy-blue bow with a matching quiver; I smiled.

    “Hey, you’re not the only one with a back-up bow.” Artemis said, pulling out a crossbow.

    Connor slammed his fist against the wall, putting a dent in it. “And my powers are back.”

    “How?” Dick and I asked.

    “I’m still—” M’Gann started, but Connor cut her off.

    “I guess Kryptonians recover faster than humans or Martians.” He said. it was silent for a moment.

    “Don’t even think about leaving me behind.” M’Gann said, placing her hands on her hips. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    “Trail of destruction this way.” Dick said as we made our way towards the building Parasite was building his weapon. Once we got in we heard Parasite talking to himself.

    “This would be a lot easier with my flash drive.” He mumbled. He inserted some sort of object that made he whole panel light up and said, “There; now let’s fire this baby up. And see what’s left of Geneva when we’re done.” He continued typing as the machine fired up.

    “Need to take him down.” I said. “Or at least lure him away so we can safely disengage the—” I was cut off by Connor yelling and charging towards Parasite. “No, wait!”

    Connor ran towards Parasite. “Seconds?” Parasite asked. “No, I couldn’t.”

    He used telekinesis to pull Connor forward, but this time Connor punched him, knocking him back. That’s when I realized, Connor was distracting him. At least long enough for us to come up with a plan; then it hit me.

    “What is wrong with—” Roy started but I cut him off.

    “Wait.” I said. he looked at me. “I have an idea.” Everyone turned their attention to me. “Since he took M’Gann’s powers, he might’ve taken her weaknesses too.” They all looked at me like I was crazy. “What? It’s better than nothing. Besides, it’s the same with Superman; he’s not unstoppable and neither is Parasite, even with all these powers. What do you think?”

    “Big risk to take on a theory.” Roy responded. “But it’s the best we’ve got.”

    I nodded and we quickly split up, with Roy and I taking the higher ground ready to shoot Parasite with our foam arrows.

    “What do you have against Geneva anyway?” M’Gann asked as she approached Parasite.

    “Never liked the food.” Parasite answered as he turned to her and rubbed his hands together. “But the menu keeps improving.”

    “I’m just the appetizer, remember?” She said. M’Gann advanced towards him, but before he could grab her she ducked and rolled behind him. “Here’s the main course.” She swiped his legs out from under him, causing him to fall; that was our que. Roy and I shot our foam arrows at Parasite, encasing him in the substance.

    He looked towards us. “Foam? You think foam can hold me?” He used telekinesis to grab me and Roy and started to mentally crush us; we screamed in pain. “Or stop me from crushing you with a thought? Martian and Kryptonian powers here.”

    He suddenly dropped us to the ground and we landed hard. I grunted in pain as I landed and for a moment I saw black dots in my vision. They quickly faded and I looked at Roy; he looked back at me with worry-filled eyes. He reached for my hand and grabbed it, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Suddenly a ring of fire surrounded Parasite; he started to groan and become weak. Eventually he fell unconscious.

    “It worked.” Roy said; I sighed in relief.

    “We’ll take it from here.” Faraday said as he and some other agents walked into the building. “Thanks for the tip, by the way. Definitely helps to prep the inhibitor collar in advanced.”

    “Glad to be of service.” Dick said. Roy helped me stand as the others made their way towards us. “You guys alright?”

    “Yeah, we’re good. I never really saw you three in the thick of it before.” Roy gestured to Artemis, Connor, and M’Gann. “Superboy’s a hothead, but I know I’m not one to talk. You could have each betrayed us here, you didn’t. I’m sorry I doubted any of you. There is no mole.”

    Roy laced his fingers with mine and smiled down at me. I smiled back, but Dick cleared his throat.

    “Blue, I thinks there’s someone we need to go see.” He said. I nodded and looked at Roy.

    “I’ll see you later?” I asked.

    He nodded. “Of course.”

    I kissed his cheek and walked off with Dick to go visit an old friend.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    “So the show will go on.” I stated as we talked with Haly in his office. He nodded.

    “And I have a feeling I have you Dangers to thank.” He said. “But I guess you’ll be leaving now.”

    “Time to move on.” Dick said.

    “Well Dick, Lorelei. I’ll miss you.” He said, shocking us both. “You’ve both grown, but some things never change. Like the sight of a Grayson on the trapeze. You can’t fake that; can’t hide it. So do an old ring master one last favor?”

    He asked us to perform one last time and we couldn’t agree fast enough. At the manor I went to sleep with the biggest smile on my face, knowing Dick and I were able to make more memories from our childhood home.