Ode to Nightwing

Chapter 19: Metropolis

On The Jet

        "Dick, you need to be resting." I grumble into the headpiece as Dick watches me back, us using the Bat gadgets to video call each other. "I'm perfectly fine."

        "This doesn't feel right." Dick mumbles and I shake my head again. 

        "I was just there twenty minutes again."

        "That is too long." Dick replies and I search his face on the screen, spotting the bruises on his face. 

        "Don't worry, nothing is going to happen. I have Batdad with me." I glance up and try to find him on his jet. "Actually I don't know where he is. He was here a second ago."

        "Cal...." Dick whispers and I glance back down at the screen. "He's behind you." 

        My eyes flicker to the tiny box that had my face in it, and I noticed that Bruce was indeed behind me. I gulped slowly. "Hey, Bruce."

        "Callie." Bruce greeted. "Dick, get rest. That's an order."

        Dick glared at him. "You were in critical condition, and Alfred still has to monitor your vitals." I say to him as I turn back around, seeing Bruce move away to sit down. "You have to rest so that you don't go back into critical condition."

        "What if something bad happens?"

        "In Metropolis? Dick, Superman lives here, and now Batman is here. I think I'm good." 

        "I have a bad feeling in my gut about this." 

        "That bad feeling in your gut is the wound from the bullet. If you get some rest now, we'll be able to do something when I get back. You know, together... and you'll be fully rested." I giggle as Dick pretends to be asleep right then and there, snoring slightly, even though he doesn't snore. "I'll talk to you as soon as you can, and I already gave orders to Alfred to make sure you stay resting."

        Dick rolls his eyes and waves at me. I blow him a kiss as a smile crosses my lips again. "Cal, I love you." Dick mumbles and I blush.

        "I know. I love you, too." And with that, I close the shut the gadget, cutting off the communication. 

        He was in this situation because of me, because I got kidnapped. "Stop blaming yourself." Bruce grumbled as he stood up again, walking by as I felt some turbulence. That was a short ride. "We deal with it every day."

        I stand up from my chair as the jet lands, slowing down. "Do you blame me? Since he is your son...."

        "No." Bruce stands by the door to exit, waiting for the jet to stop and for it to open. 

        Once it did, I followed Bruce outside onto the landing platform, someone in a business suit greeting us. "Hello." He states as he greets us, shaking Bruce's hand, and then mine. "The cars are waiting for you." 

        "Good." Bruce turns to me. "You will go and I will catch up with you in a few minutes. I have some business to attend to elsewhere at the moment." 

        I pout slightly before fixing my backpack, which had my mask in it, my suit on underneath my jeans, t-shirt, and leather jacket. I didn't have time before to take off since he wanted to leave so abruptly. "Fine. I'll just wait in your office like a little kid after h- never mind." 

At Wayne Tower

        I sigh as I lean back in his chair, really bored since Alfred had reported that Dick was being a good boy and sleeping, so I couldn't call him. I glanced out of the wall of windows, bored with hacking into systems across the globe. I looked away, uninterested with the giant black ship-

        I turn quickly in the chair, running to the window, my mouth dropping open. It looked... It looked alien. I ran over to the fire alarm and quickly pulled it, triggering it. I grabbed my phone and called Bruce. "Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick u-"

        "I know." Bruce mutters back before I even said anything. 

        "I pulled the fire alarm, but I don't know if anyone is leaving the building." I say, my voice rushed as I see two figures go flying through the sky. "What is happening?"

        "It's Superman. He had reports about something happening." Bruce informs me, and I wonder if that was the whole reason we came to Metropolis.

        "Bruce, what do I do?"

        "Get out of the building, I'm coming to get you now." Bruce then hangs up and I sigh, looking down at the phone, wondering if I should inform Dick. No, he had enough stress already. 

        I decide to change into my clothing, in case something did happen. And my mask had a thermal scanner, so I could tell if there were any people on levels. I was on the top level to begin with, since Bruce's office was on the top floor. I got down a level before stopping, seeing someone under a desk, hiding. "Hey!" I shout, running over. "You have to get out of the building!" I yell, and they barely glance at me before leaving. I shake my head at them as they race to the stairwell, running down it. I sigh before looking around for anyone else. Thermal scanners had nothing until- I whip my head back around as two heat signatures show up in front of me, but I was near the window....

        I try to dodge out of the way, but I'm collided with, by both glass and a steel body. I slam into the wall on the other side, almost hitting the other glass wall. I gasp as my head smacks against the wall. "13, 7, 0!" I shout and the helmet activates, and I check my vitals, keeping an eye on the two figures in front of me. One was Superman, and the other... I didn't know who he was, but he was the bad guy. That guy was on the ground, clutching at his eyes, which looked like they were glowing red. I gasped and moved to the left, falling onto my side as a laser pulsated the spot I had been in. He had laser vision, like Superman. 

        "No!" Superman was suddenly in front of me, battling the bad guy's laser vision with his own, yelling. The bad guy's laser suddenly cuts the ground beneath the two of us, and then the building above, cutting all the pillars. Everything was crumbling around us, and I felt the ground collapse, my body falling through it. 

        I scream.

        A vice-like grip suddenly grasps my wrist, and I'm hovering in the air. Nothing below me for a few floors, all of it crumbling to the street. I glance up at Superman, who looked in pain. He yanked me up, but there was nowhere to set me, because the building was crumbling. 

        Something hot was suddenly near me, and Superman cried out in pain, and he let go. I didn't have time to scream as I fell, my body smashing onto the floor of one level done. I scream in pain, my helmet cracking upon the impact. I breathed in unsteadily as I saw something flying at me, but the colors all flooded together. Maybe it was the floor from above. Maybe it was Superman. Maybe it was the bad guy. I just didn't know what happened next as my mind let go with one rattling breath after another. 

Meanwhile

        Bruce ran down the street, running into the giant dust cloud as his own building crumbled down to the ground, the lasers having cut it into many pieces that crumbled down. He was yelling, out of breath. He couldn't stop, Callie was still over here. "Callie!" Bruce shouted, shielding the dust from his eyes as he ran forward, finding and speaking with someone that had worked at the Wayne Tower here, who had his legs broken. Bruce kept going, searching the rubble, finding a little girl that was crying, her mother having been in the Tower also. Bruce looked up at the tower, glaring up into the sky as Superman came into view. 

        He had done this to all of these people. He had harmed and killed all of these people because of this general. He had put Callie into harm's way. She looked unconscious in his arms, as he hovered above the building that used to be one of the tallest in Metropolis. Superman swooped down and set Callie down on a slab of rock that had once been part of the building. He then zoomed off with one last look at Bruce, who had looked at the Man of Steel with disappointment and anger in his eyes.