Making Waves

Chapter 9

Dick ran his hand through his hair, closing his eyes briefly. He was relieved that none of the effects were life-threatening, but he felt a little horrible anyways.

"We'll keep him here for as long as he needs," Dinah assured, crossing off one of the two concerns Dick had left, "He'll need to be watched for a while, but we won't start looking for long-term solutions at least until he wakes up."

"We have the resources for that, right? And he's not placed in the main medbay?" Dick pressed.

Black Canary nodded.

"We do. And don't worry, he's isolated for the time being. Only I and Dr. Helding have access."

Dick hummed in approval, recognizing the name as one of the top league employees. Then, he hesitated. He didn't want to address his second concern, for fear of being insensitive, but thankfully Dinah picked up on it.

"You won't be able to ask him anything for a while. Even during the times he's awake, he's not lucid enough to do anything but blink, much less talk. You'll have to wait, a few days at least," she warned.

"Alright," Dick agreed easily, "Thanks for everything Dinah."

"Anytime," his old friend replied, "I'll keep you updated."

With that, she ended the call, the screen going blank in front of him. He gently shut the laptop and returned it to his protective casing. Then, he rested his chin in his palm and, with the other hand, turned over the vial he had retrieved from the warehouse.

Between his fingers and from inside the glass, the purple liquid shimmered lightly on the cotton swab. He stared at it as if he could telepathically will the answers from it before sighing and placing it back onto the table.

He didn't have the lab equipment here to test it against the liquid in the guns. He was almost positive it was the same kind, but he'd have to go back to the manor to get Tim to verify it, just in case. Maybe his brother could even pull some other data from the sample that he was missing.

He glanced at his wrist again. 9:45 PM. At least he had time to eat before his rendezvous with Perseus.

...............

Percy leaped across the chasm that divided the previous building from her next one. She hit the concrete softly, barely pausing to adjust to the ground beneath her feet before taking off again. Her target location had a few extra stories and when she jumped once more, her fingers wrapped around the metal of a fire escape, and she scaled the side. The second she swung her body over the ledge, she heard a "You're late," come from the figure in front of her.

"By like six minutes," she definitely did not whine.

She did roll her eyes though as she approached the other hero. Nightwing was already waiting for her, the bird insignia on his chest gleaming in the moonlight. He was leaning back against the door of a small structure.

"At least I didn't take the stairs," she snorted, gesturing to the door behind him, which probably connected to the rest of the building to allow for roof access.

"I didn't take—" Nightwing began, affronted, and looking like someone ruffled his metaphorical feathers before he realized she was just joking. He rolled his eyes back at her.

"These are the guns," he said, changing the subject and pointing at the dark duffel at his feet, "Not sure what they do yet, but there's a warehouse nearby, in an abandoned district. We can test them out."

"Sure," Percy replied because there wasn't much else to say.

As soon as he received her confirmation of the plan, Nightwing ran to the edge of the building and flipped away without warning.