Electric Flame

2.6

The days seemed to drag along. Damian had brought me back into the herolife and his spirits seemed to be lifted, but I wondered if this was what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be.

I'd distanced myself from everyone. Dick no longer asked me what was wrong because I always answered with the same lie, 'nothing'.

The nights aren't any better either. The nightmares kept attacking. And I couldn't keep them away. My weak attempts at pushing my fears deep down only drained my energy, which rarely ever seemed to be replenished. Every night I woke up feeling strangled, trying to catch some air for my lungs. And every night I got the same worried looks, claiming that they cared about me. But did they really? None of them really knew me.

The same boy keeps haunting my dreams from that one moment by the pit. Its glowing reflection against his soulless green eyes. His eyes. That's what I feared that most. There was so much experience, so much trauma locked up in such a tiny space. It was driving him insane. And I always woke up at the same time. At the same exact moment. Just before the poor boy, no older than the age of fifteen, let out that final ear-piercing, glass-shattering, death-defying shriek.

But I've learned one thing, and one thing only: I couldn't run away from what was inside my mind.

Joker's been broken out of Arkham.

The strange thing was that nothing big had happened in Gotham since the prison break, and Joker's last sighting was this abandoned warehouse on 57th Street by the docks. However, he was said to have been dragged here by a red masked man.

This was what caught Bruce's attention.

The same masked man that the Team was told about two weeks ago. The same masked man that was somehow tied with their pasts. And little did they know that he was part of mine.

Every time we knocked one out, ten more seemed to appear, but that's not it. They weren't Joker's men either, just some random drug dealing thugs from off the streets. But there's thousands!

"Ah!" An ear-splitting shriek echoed through the atmosphere. The static in my ear piece started to whir.

"That's Barbara," Dick whispered from behind, freezing in place. Pain flashed across his face, and his eyebrows furrowed for a second.

I scoffed and shook my head, continuing to scout out the narrow hallway. "Of course, you know what her screams sound like."

He yanked my arm, and I yelped like a Chihuahua. "Not necessary." He glared.

Silence. Nail-biting silence.

"Come on, we don't have much time," he muttered as his grip tightened on my wrist. I took one last look around and we continued on, silently sneaking through the old warehouse. "Robin and Batman are going ahead." I nodded.

As soon as we turned the corner, a shrill voice shot through the air. "Hey! You're not supposed to be here!" He charged, but the idiotic brute couldn't get two feet before I stuck out my hand and willed his body to freeze.

Power surged through my veins and a wave of burning heat erupted from deep within my core. I grinned at the new rush of energy, felt the tingling in the tips of my fingers and toes.

It'd been three years since I used my powers recklessly, and this pushed me into my own euphoric high. Electricity pulsated through my bones.

Dick, now Nightwing, slowly approached the criminal guard, glanced toward me, cocked his like a lost puppy, and raised his arm to push him over. "Man, that was easy. We could have used you during the alien invasion." He chuckled, his head hung.