Her Dark Knight

Chapter 10: Panic

Before the officer/thug could get his gun, however, the back of the van opened and a tall, somewhat older gentleman stepped out as he called, "Gentlemen."

The man who'd been reaching for his gun glanced away from Rebecca and to the mysterious man as the man announced, "Time to spread the word."

A strange, cannon-shaped machine was brought out behind the man and Rebecca's eyes widened as she abruptly realized this man had to be one of the ones working with Crane.

She quickly pulled the boy fully behind her while her hand shot to her own gun, holstered inside her jacket, but the man spotted her and he seemed almost amused as he said, "And the word is-"

He pressed the machine, letting out some kind of wave, while he finished smugly while staring right at Rebecca, "Panic."

Instantly, every manhole in the city blew up as the wave somehow triggered the fear hallucinogen mixed into the city's water supply, and the gas started to flood the streets from every opening. Almost as quickly, people started screaming and crying out in absolute terror, while Rebecca dropped into a crouch as she pulled the boy into her embrace, doing her best to shield him from direct contact with the gas as she held him close to her chest.

"Stop!" Rebecca ordered the mysterious man, coughing as the gas thickened into a fog, but he just smirked at her as he pulled on a gasmask, his team doing the same.

"Try to make me." The man informed her as he walked away into the fog, his men following while Rebecca coughed.

She fired once towards the man's feet, but he dodged – what kind of skills did this guy have? – as he continued to walk away without even looking back at her and his men followed.

Clearly, he thought she was going to hallucinate soon, unaware she'd been inoculated. Unfortunately, Rebecca couldn't follow the man without leaving the boy, who was already starting to gasp as he started to breathe in the toxic gas.

"Hang on, kid, just hang on." Rebecca murmured desperately as she pulled the boy into her arms, starting to move somewhere where the fog wasn't as thick and she could actually see more than a foot in front of her.

She was also desperate to get the boy off the streets, where she could hear people screaming as they turned on each other, driven mad by the toxin and thinking they were facing their worst fears instead of other human beings.

***********

Meanwhile, Gordon managed to jab the antidote Rebecca had given him into his leg right before he inhaled more than one gulp of the gas.

He almost wished what he was seeing was a hallucination as he saw people tearing at each other while others ran about screaming, panicking, if they weren't already curled into convulsing balls on the ground. He spotted Flass about to fire his gun on two innocents, the man clearly also out of it, and Gordon quickly smashed his fist into the man's head.

Flass collapsed, unconscious, and Gordon took some grim satisfaction in cuffing the man onto a nearby steel support beam that ran under the train system that ran through the centre of the whole island.

"-Commissioner Loeb!"

Gordon looked over towards the nearest cop patrol car where the walkie-talkie was blaring as Loeb yelled into it. "Come in. Somebody talk to me. Come on!"

Gordon quickly took the walkie-talkie as he yelled back urgently, "Loeb, go! This is Gordon."

"What the hell is going on in there?" Loeb demanded, and Gordon answered frantically, "We need reinforcements! TAC teams, SWAT, riot cops-!"