Nightwing - CLOSED

Chapter 14

Rain was sitting up in her bed, in her apartment. She heard her front door open and close. "Hello?" she called. She watched her door knob turn slowly and brought her knees up. The lights were off, so she could only see a shadowy form walk towards her. "Rain." She cringed as Lium whispered her name.

"What? What do you want?" Rain frowned at him. "I want you back. Where are you?" At this, Rain realized this is just a dream. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to wake herself. "Where are you, Rain?" Lium repeated several times, each time getting quieter as she gained consciousness.

Rain woke with a start, her eyes casting a blue glow in the dark room. She morphed back into human and stood, stretching her arms above her head, her back arching. Satisfied with the pops it brought, Rain grabbed her key and put it in her pocket, then headed out the door.

She wandered around until she made her way into the command room. Steve and Fury were deep in an argument with Stark. Rain paid no mind, not wanting to disrupt them. She sat down in one of the chairs. Eventually, Stark lost and they all turned to her. Rain tilted her head, suspicious. "What?" she pressed.

Stark answered her question. "You get to meet a god. He's going to see if you have the negetives of the tesseract." He pulled his mouth into a quick, sarcastic smile. Steve glared at Tony, shaking his head slightly. "What?" Stark snapped and stalked out of the room. After a moment's silence, Rain looked at Rodgers. "What's the time?"

He looked at his watch and answered. "It's one." Rain groaned, "I only slept for an hour?" She felt like its been weeks. Steve and Nick glanced at each other, Nick shifting to cross his arms. "You've been asleep for more than twenty-four hours, Rain."

Rain raised both of her eyebrows in surprise. "I know how that feels..." Steve muttered. Rain roles her eyes in amusement, then stopped, widening them in horror! "I had work today!" She squeaked, pulling her phone out from her back pocket. She quickly dialed Jim's contact number and called it.

After a few rings, Jim picked it up. "Hello, this is Jim from Francy's. How may I help you?" he stated the usual answering statement. "Jim Bo! It's Rain. Sorry I wasn't able to make it; I wasn't feeling good yesterday and slept through my alarm. I just woke up." Rain squeezed an eye shut, waiting for him to yell at her.

"It's okay, Rain. That one guy said you weren't feeling good, and that if you came in to work, I should call him so he could take you home." Rain froze and glanced at Fury and the Captain. They both watched her. "Is he still there, Jim?" she gulped. "Yeah, why?" Rain took in a breath. "Be careful, Jim. He's very dangerous. I'll be there in 30 minutes. Make sure he stays there."

Rain heared Jim mutter something to someone. "Okay. We'll be waiting." he told her, then hung up. Rain turned to Nick and Steve. "He's at my work, Lium is." They all stood and headed towards the hallway. "How will you guys get there?" she asked them.

Steve shrugged and Fury only glanced at her. "Should I get Tony then?" Fury shook his head. "We don't want anything burnt to a crisp." Rain nodded, understanding. She turned into a dragon when they were in the open. Fury and Steve hopped into a squad transporting plane and it fired up. Rain waited until it had taken off to do so herself.

They landed the plane at the Dallas Love airport, and had someone being a vehicle for Steve and Fury. Somehow, Steve had managed to get his suit on and grab his shield without Rain noticing. Rain stayed in dragon form, and led them towards the restaraunt. She noted all the stares from the passengers of the pulled over cars as they waited for the blasting sirens from Fury's Ford SUV to pass by.

Soon, they pulled into the parking lot of Francy's, Rain already in human form, waiting for the men to get out of the car. Slowly, they made their way inside, Fury's gun drawn. Rain looked around at the crouching citizens. She wasn't able to find Jimmy, and panicked, heading to his office in the back.

She banged open the door to find Lium holding Jim's chin, ready to twist it and break his neck. "One more step, Rain," he snarled, "and I snap it like a twig." Rain froze, starring at Jim in horror. "No, please don't, he's just a human!" Rain pleaded, stepping back half a step.

Her ear twitched as she heard the slow sound of leather being rubbed quietly. She shifted to her right slightly, giving the Captain a clear shot. She felt the whir of air next to ear, and saw his shield fly into Lium's side, making him let go of Jimmy. Jim jumped over the counter and ran behind Rain. She pushed him away, telling him to get the others and leave.

Rodgers' shield flew back to him, and he put it back on his arm. Lium pushed his jaw back into place, making a snapping noise, and wiped his bleeding lip. He glowered at Rain. "Come along, Rain. You three are severely outnumbered here." Rain stiffened, and looked behind Rodgers. She saw several bulky men and agile women blocking their path.

"What're they here for? They won't touch me, and you kill Rodgers or Fury, I don't go with you. You're losing, Lium." Rain sneered. She leaned towards Steve, ready to fight. A ruckus behind them made Rain snap her head around to see a couple of the vampires being pushed down. Joshua appeared in front of her, grabbing hers and Steve's shoulder, making them flash with him to the car.

"Get in!" he ordered. "Where's Fury?" Steve asked stubbornly not obeying. A window roled down, reviling a beat of Fury. Steve nodded and got in, where Rain just shifted into a ground dragon, which had no wings, but made up for it by its running speed. Joshua put the car in gear, and sped out of the parking lot before the others gathered their wits.

Before Rain could follow, Lium appeared in front of her. She hissed at him, and grabbed at her, only to get the arrow head of a tail stabbed into his hand. He shouted out in pain, and Rain ran off, hitting 100 miles per hour in just 1.6 seconds. She followed the scent of the car and sped after it.

She caught up to it in a few minutes, and stayed beside it as Joshua maneuvered between traffic. He turned into a dirt road, making Rain confused. She could here Steve asking what Joshua was doing. She rammed into the side of the SUV, making it swerve. She pulled in front of it a few meters, causing Joshua to slam on the brakes.

Rain morphed into her human, and walked over to the driver's side, tappin the tinted window. Joshua rolled it down, glaring at her. "What do you think you're doing?" He also had a British accent, but Rain ignored the resemblance. "I could ask you the same thing, Joshua." Her voice was tinted with anger, but she caught to control it.

Joshua took a deep breath and looked out the front windshield. "I'm taking you to a safe house. No one knows about it." Rain scowled, and Steve spoke what was on her mind. "Our air base is plenty safe enough." he argued. Without turning to him, Joshua smoothly replied, "Don't you need to land to refuel?" Steve sat back down in his seat.

Rain groaned inwardly. "Okay, fine. Just fix Fury up, and they can go back. I'll stay here." Steve's jaw clenched and he furrowed his eyebrows. "No, Rain. Who knows if he's playing you." Rain smiled lightly at his rejection to her leaving. "Sorry, Steve. But I've gotta." She morphed back into the ground dragon and motioned with her head for Joshua to continue. He rolled up the window and drove on.