Profession

So that's what happened

When I heard battering sounds from the other side of the door, I worked faster, gathering up the costumes for my cousins and grandpa and tossing them into a corner. Hopefully I could do something about them before the authorities showed up. It had been hard to get them out of their vigilante garb, but I couldn't let them be found wearing the costumes; they were undeniably authentic, not something that they could say they'd been to a party in. And the task was harder, because they were affected by what I presumed was Scarecrow's fear gas. But I stripped some of the hoodies that the Joker's minions were wearing and covered them up; Batman, Nightwing, and Nightfall costumes don't allow anything under them. From what I could tell, Nick and Pete were bruised and cut from really bad beatings, and Nick might have a broken arm, I thought they might both have concussions, maybe some cracked ribs, but their damage wasn't serious. Grandpa Bruce, on the other hand...

He was in a very bad way. There was a crushed area on his skull, visible breaks in an arm and leg, heartbeat thready, breathing shallow. Pupils responded sluggishly to light. There was nothing I could do but cover him with hoodies to help keep him warm.

I was taking the pulse in the better arm when there was pounding on the outside of the door I'd wedged shut with blasts from my suit's repulsors. "Honey, get away from the door," Uncle Tony said anxiously. "We're here, Supes is going to open that door. Are there booby traps?"

"Kind of, what I think was Scarecrow's fear gas was used. Anybody coming in should use an appropriate air filter. But we need medical personnel immediately."

"Ambulances are right behind us." He cut off, and the door jamb started heating red. Yay Superman. I stood up, placing myself between the door and my relatives, just in case some molten material came our way, there was a possibility I could intercept it. But this wasn't Superman's first rodeo, and he heated it enough to allow him to kick the door open on the hinges. Better than blasting his way through. He looked around quickly and zoomed over to me with a stretcher, looking at the bodies behind me. I jerked my head to the corner where I'd dumped the costumes, and he turned his laser gaze over there, melting the high tech fabrics into an indistinguishable lump. Whew. One less thing to worry about. Then I helped him very carefully transfer my grandfather to the stretcher, and he lifted it up and took it out the door. Uncle Tony came in with two additional ones, and we got Nick and Pete onto them. Uncle Tony took one and I took the other; he could fly Pete out but Nick was stuck with me, dragging the stretcher travois-style. A safe distance from the room, EMTs were waiting and took the stretcher from me. Then everybody evacuated the corridor and Superman and Uncle Tony brought in fans to circulate the air and dilute the gas enough that nobody would be affected by it,  clearing the way for emergency personnel to go in for the other injured people.

"The police will want to see you after you've been checked out medically," Uncle Tony said through our com link. "Keep it simple, honey, just tell them what happened today."

"Right. I guess we'll go with the old "kidnapped for ransom" story to explain Nick, Pete, and Grandpa Bruce."

"Might as well, it's something that people could easily accept. Now go get checked out, honey." Reluctantly, I pressed my armor to make it retract, staggering a bit when it did. It had provided a lot of support that I hadn't realized. An EMT guided me over as three ambulances from the line of them took off, sirens blaring, and jumped into the air, headed for a hospital. I was examined quickly and given a small dose of medication for the light concussion I had. My arm and shoulder were sore from being grabbed and dragged along, but this was bruising and strained ligaments and muscles, nothing serious. I had a black eye and more bruising where I'd been kicked, and the EMT gave me an ice pack for that along with a light blanket and moved aside as another patient was brought up. The Joker and I locked eyes for a few long moments and hate warred with panic in his expression, then the contact was broken as the gurney he was on was loaded into the ambulance.