Ode to Nightwing

Chapter 34: Militia

        "Cal-" My head was pounding. "Callie!" There was the shout again, the sound of it ringing in my head, making it ache in pain. "Cal-"

        "Shush it!" I shouted back, rolling over onto my front as I tried to get up. "My head hurts." I grumble again, my brain not being able to connect who's voice was actually near me. Which warm body that was next to me. 

        "You said you would stay fighting the lowlifes, not getting involved with the militia." I recognized the voice now.

        "At first I was." I grumble, managing to get onto my knees. "But then I wanted to visit the clocktower and yeah." I rub at my temples, before fear suddenly raced into my body again. "Barbara... oh my god, I'm so sorry." Our eyes connected then as my stomach turned. "I couldn't save her."

        Nightwing stands up, holding out his hand for me to grab. "No time to worry about what we couldn't do. We need to focus on what we can do."

A Few Minutes Later

        "What have you been doing?" I question, speeding behind him on the motorcycle, him on his own bike. I wonder if Tim is missing his bike.

        "Had a nice talk with Batman before finding you."

        "He told you I was there, didn't he."

        "No, I followed him there after the incident happened. He was there, tracking who took Barb."

        We lapsed into silence for a few seconds as our motorcycles raced around the Gotham streets, me not knowing where we were going. "It was the same guy-"

        "Brake." 

        "What?"

        "Brake!" Dick shouts, him speeding forward as I braked hard, the front tire squealing against the road as the back lifted from the braking. 

        My back tire didn't even hit the ground before a car barreled through a side-street into the wall on the opposite side. I glanced from it to Nightwing, who had turned his bike around to come back. "Nice timing." I whisper into the comms, my heart pounding. 

        "You good?" He questions, watching me from behind his helmet. I nod slightly, revving my engine to confirm it. He whirls his bike around speeding off with me right behind him. "Which man?" Dick questions and I furrow my brows.

        "What?"

        "Before we got rudely interrupted, you were saying something about a man." He explains.

        "Oooooooooooh. The man that took Barbara. It was the same man that was in Bludhaven before."

        "Wait." He turns, cutting me off. "Are you positive?" 

        I nod, before frowning at the sky, which had started to rain. "Yes, I am positive. He stated that, 'I told you to stay out of Gotham.'" 

        Nightwing glances around, eyeing the abandoned buildings, all of them empty because of the evacuation. "This was a plan since then...." He murmured. "He didn't want us to interfere. But why? Why warn us?"

        "Maybe it's just a personal vendetta against Batman and Gotham?" I suggest. There were a lot of people that had a vendetta against Batman.

        He revs his engine then. "I'm going to talk to Bruce, you head back to Tim, use the Batcomputer to find more leads since Tim is busy with making a cure." 

        "Cure? Cure for wha-" The motorcycle squeals away, cutting off the rest of my sentence. "Well then." I grumble, starting up my engine before heading back in the direction we just came from, passing by the diner I had helped so long ago, it cautioned off now. I rubbed my neck, thinking about the robbers I had fought. 

        I swing my feet and kick at him again, kicking his gut. His thigh. I finally kick him in his baby maker, and he drops me, cursing again. I fall to my knees, holding my neck. The man was on his back, cursing and spitting out insults and threatening to do nasty things to me and my body. I cough and stumble into a standing position. I stare down at him. "You need to learn how to treat a woman." I remark before creeping over to the door we had exited from, peeking into the diner to see if I could help anyone. I spotted another customer that was hiding under their table, and I held up a finger to make them stay for a little while longer. 

        I couldn't see the other robbers, so I stood up, heading into the room fully. They were in the back, ransacking the office's safe probably. I silently beckoned towards the surviving customer and made sure they got out of the diner safely. But I stayed back, wanting to make sure that no one else was in here that I could save. I peeked around the booths and under tables, before behind the bar. That was when I was hit on the back of the head with something very heavy. I fall forward onto the bar, my eyesight going black and blurry. "I told you you would regret that." It was my attacker. I dodged his other attack with a pipe, but as I was dodging it, he grabbed my neck and picked me up, throwing me onto the bar. He held me there as he got onto the counter also, sitting on me, smirking like a mad-man. "I am going to love hearing your screams before I kill you." He murmurs in my ear and I scream. He laughs, placing the pipe on my stomach as he got occupied with other things. As he was busy with getting stuff off, I was busy grabbing his pipe from my stomach and swinging it at his head, knocking him off of the counter. I sit up and head into the back room, surprising the other two men with a swing off the pipe to their heads. I threw their guns in the desk of the diner manager, dragging the men into the front of the diner, tying them up.

        As I went looking for a phone, I found a robber missing from my pile of unconscious robbers. I blinked a few times, thinking it was my imagination, but a hand covered my mouth, the other hand pulling my hair back. The hand covered my scream as my attacker just laughed in my ear. "You just don't know when to give in, do you?"

        Bullets. 

        There were bullet sounds.

        I blink rapidly, getting out of my daydream as I glance around, seeing a giant militia tank coming at me, firing at some thugs that had fired at them. Looks like the tank had hit their car. Or their stolen car anyway. 

        "To interfere, or not to interfere. That is the question."