Nightwing: Heroes

Chapter 23: The Arrow

Chapter 23

*Arrow's POV*

"OVERWATCH WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG?!" I yelled over top of the massive explosions and screams of people being terrorized throughout the city. "Oliver I'm sorry, all communications are down! I can't reach Captain Lance!" Felicity replied, scared out of her mind at the horror that plastered itself all over the news. Though unbeknownst to the public, was more than often referred to as 'The Arrow', and Spartan, also known as John Diggle, and I stood atop the roof of a business building, attempting to spot a vantage point that we could safely drop in at on the streets. Spartan cocked his ak 12, readying himself for what he was about to take part of. "Oliver what the h..." "I have no idea," I cut my comrad off, knowing we didn't have time to ask questions. 

I shot a grappling arrow at the building across the street from us, which was at least four-dozen meters shorter. That will at least get us closer to the ground I thought as I prepared to descend. "We have to move fast, we can't risk them spotting us" I reminded Spartan, as I jumped off the building onto the zip line, speeding across the rope.

"Okay, c'mon Dig, you can do this. You can do this," Spartan repeated to himself under his breath. He let out a sigh and squinted his eyes, pacing. "Agghhh" he growled as he jumped off, using his assault rifle to ride down it, following far behind me.

I reached the other building, flinging myself off of the line and landing on top of it on one knee. "OVERWATCH, HAVE YOU FOUND A WAY TO STOP THESE...THINGS YET?" I yelled once again, straining my vocal chords as we were much closer to the commotion now.
"Oliver do NOT rush me, I'm going as fast as I can but nagging is NOT going to help one bit" Felicity replied, putting him in his place. I breathed out, calming myself.

"Looks like we're not the only ones trying to stop these creatures" Spartan said, nodding down into the streets below.

A black motorcycle with a bright blue streak on it bolted through the streets, running into the monsters. The driver picked up citizens and carried them away from the looming threat. "Who is that." I said, seeming to state more so then ask it.

The city was in flames, smoke replacing all of the air and filling our lungs. We began to cough, and we both covered our faces with our arms as we stared down at the stranger in the streets.

"There!" Spartan exclaimed, pointing down towards a shaded alleyway. Nothing appeared to be there, so that's where we would drop in at. I activated my voice modulator and said, "let's move."

Both Spartan and I jumped down into the alleyway. I landed on top of a dumpster and rolled off, readying my bow with an explosive arrow as I cautiously stepped out of the shadows onto the death-ridden streets, with Spartan close behind me. The stranger zoomed past us, and our eyes met as he did.

He slammed on the brakes to the vehicle, ear-splitting screeching reaching our ears but getting drowned out by the rest of the chaos. I winced as my ears rang for a second. "Arrow I presume," he said matter-of-factly. The two other passengers he had saved a mile back jumped off and ran into the alleyway behind us. Without lowering my bow, I replied, "And who exactly are you?" "The name's Nightwing. But we don't have time for introductions. We need to stop these things from causing anymore harm."

I stared at him for a second, and then lowered my bow, remembering Artemis mentioning someone by that codename last year. Though I kept the arrow ready on the string in the case of any surprises. "How exactly do we do that. They're punching straight through concrete, from what we've seen they HAVE no weakness." He shook his head, "I have no idea. I know almost nothing about them except for where they came from and why they're here."

My jaw squared, and I sighed, enraged by our helplessness. "You were running into them with that bike of yours, and it seemed to do almost nothing but stagger them for a few seconds. We're going to need something very..." I was cut off as one of the creatures jumped right off of the building across the street, gliding straight towards us.

My reflexes kicked in immediately and I raised my bow with lightning speed, releasing the explosive arrow on the creature while he was still mid-air. The arrow exploded, massive flames flying off in all directions. I stared in anticipation and fear, waiting for the fire and smoke to clear to see what the impact had done, if it had done anything at all.

After a few moments I could see through the remnants of the blast and to my surprise, the monster was on the ground, and seemed to be unconscious. "Did that actually just work?" Spartan asked from under his helmet. Nightwing began to walk cautiously over to it, and I held my arm out, keeping him back, as I stepped forward instead, bow at the ready.

I stood over the near-motionless body, a tranquilizer arrow drawn mere inches away from his, or it's, chest. I lightly jabbed him with the arrow head thrice, not even breaking the skin. Slowly bending down, I felt for a pulse, and there was still a faint sign of one.

"He's still alive" I reported as I returned to the other heroes. "That arrow was loaded with a blast almost twice as strong as a grenade. These things have armor for skin, and I don't know how to take them down." I turned back around, staring at the alienistic body. "Overwatch" I spoke into my earpiece. "I still haven't found anything on these guys except for a few crappy cell phone camera recordings of one named 'Vehratrath' giving some speech about how our world needs to be reborn, which by the way reminds me a LOT of Damien Darhk a few years back."

My heart stopped and fear crept into the back of my mind as I realized I could hear her clearly. I didn't even have to shout for her to hear ME. I looked all around the fire-laden streets, and didn't see any of those creatures. Nightwing and Spartan caught on as well. "Oliver?" Felicity asked worriedly through our coms. I breathed out shakily as a sudden fear hit me in my gut, as I had no idea, whatsoever, what was going to happen.