Run bulletproof, run yeah you gotta run! Run Beautiful, run yeah you gotta run!
I've been obsessed with this song ever since it came out. Total banger! Anyway, just want to say, this is a short chapter (if you have seen the episode you'll know why). Percy's POV is not in this because of what happened in the last chapter, but don't worry, it will return in the next.
Dick's POV
Furious was not the word to describe his mood when he heard what had happened just mere minutes after he had told the Team to rendezvous and come home.
The Team vanished without a trace, and Percy lost again without a warning.
Dick was worried out of his mind, his already stressed mind now full-on overload. He could barely hold in his anger and anguish as he and Doctor Fate emerged out of the portal.
"Alright, what happened? What the hell happened to Tidal-Wing and the rest of my Team?!" He yelled, his voice echoing around the vast empty chamber. Nightwing glared at the blue-clad boy in front of him, who coward a little at his fury.
"It's all my fault," Blue Beetle admitted in a small voice, head lower, staring at the floor. Green Beetle was beside him, a hand on the young boy's shoulder.
"That assessment is inaccurate," Green said in his usual calm voice.
"Just tell him what you told us." Captain Atom added from the side.
Nightwing crossed his arms, waiting. He looked calm on the outside, but his heart was raging, panicked, and worried about what might have happened to Percy and the Team.
Jaime took a deep breath and began. "We'd won...We were all here in this bay, Wondergirl had Mongul hogtied. Then suddenly a Boom Tube opened up right beneath our feet. I-I flew up and out. It was an instinct, you know! But before I could do anything else, the Boom Tube closed...and the others were gone..."
Dick gritted his teeth, mustering all his strengths not to let his heartbreak show. He pulled out his wrist computer and began typing, his hands were shaking but that didn't bother him. "I'm definitely reading traces of Boom Tube activity." He confirmed, eyes peering at Jaime from time to time underneath his mask. He still doesn't fully buy the boy's story.
"We think Mongul may have opened the Boom Tube as a means of escape, gaining the Team as captives in the bargain." Captain Atom said, then his face darkened. "The Team...and worse..."
"Impulse had the crystal key," Jaime told them.
CA nodded grimly. "The priority right now is to make sure no one uses it to reactivate the War World. Captain Marvel and Rocket are already guarding the Key Chamber. And the Justice League will continue guarding it in shifts until the key is found and the threat is ended."
"This is all my fault," said Jaime guiltily. A part of Dick wanted to scream at the boy that yes, this is in fact his fault! He should have grabbed them when he had the chance. But another more sensible part of him knew better than to say that. Until all clues have been found, Dick can't say anything. Besides, Percy would never forgive him if he laid the blame on an innocent boy.
In the end, Nightwing sighed, all emotions cleared from his face. "Stop...you didn't do anything wrong. We'll figure this out. For now-"
"I will ensure he gets home safely," Green Beetle offered. His eagerness raised a hint of suspicion in Dick's heart but he said nothing. Behind the two Beetles, Dr. Fate opened a portal for them that lead straight back to Earth. Nightwing's gaze lingered on the Martian for a moment longer, Green and Blue had gotten a lot closer recently, ever since Impulse informed him that Green had somehow fixed Blue's scarab.
At the portal entrance, Blue turned to them again. "I'm sorry..." Jaime sounded truly guilty and for a micro-second, Dick wondered if he had been too paranoid, but that feeling went away quickly.
"...No. Whoever did this, they'll be sorry..." He didn't mean for his tone to come out that threatening, but thinking that Percy and the rest of the Team could be serious trouble right now, he just couldn't help it. Dick tried to calm his heart. "Go...you need rest."
As the two disappeared out of sight, Nightwing let his head drop. "I should have been there..." He confessed to the two Leaguer remained with him. "I should have been there with the Team, with Tidal-Wing...I just got her back..."
Captain Atom laid a firm hand on the Bluebird hero's shoulder. "No, you did what you had to do for the sake of the mission..."
Bitterness rosed in the Acrobat's heart. Yeah...for the sake of the mission.
For the sake of the mission, he let two of his best friends to walk straight into the lion's den. For the sake of the mission, Megan fried Kaldur's mind and was captured by Manta. For the sake of the mission, the Love of his life stepped onto this god-damned war satellite and now she and the rest of his Team had vanished without a trance and Dick have no idea where they are at!
"They - Tidal-Wing and the Team - will be fine," Captain reassured him. "Our best guess is that they are still somewhere on War World, Mongul couldn't have taken them anywhere else. This is his dominion."
Dr. Fate kept his eyes on the Team Leader. "The Fates have not decreed that the Champion's time is up, rest assured that the young half-blood is still alive."
That did not offer him much comfort.
...
He stayed behind in the War World despite the others telling him that he needed rest as well. Dick scanned the place where the Team was last sighted from top to bottom, not letting go of any little detail. The other Leaguers have long since gone off to their separate positions somewhere in the War World, so Dick is the only one who remained in the Docking Bay. The place is silent except for the whirring noise of his wrist computer.
Nightwing scanned the walls, hands tracing the smooth surface until he came across a panel. "Airlock's damaged." He noted with narrowed eyes. He didn't recall Jaime mentioning that in his story. He glanced down and immediately spotted an object he knew too well.
"Robin's birdarang?" He picked it up carefully and scanned it with his computer. Immediately the screen flashed, showing him what the naked eye couldn't see. "Birdarang must have scratched Blue's armor..." But how? Jaime never mentioned any fights breaking out in the Docking Bay. And Dick was positive that this room was secured when Bioship landed here to deploy the Team.
Something's not right, but what proof does he have? Nightwing looked around one last time, trying to spot anything else he might have left off, and found seemingly nothing. He sighed, anger and misery started to rise in his heart once again, so much so that he yelled in frustration and punched the wall next to him! He stood there, breathing hard, staring at the fist-size crate now etched into the wall.
"I swear, whoever god-damn did this is going to pay..."
...
It was near nightfall in Bludhaven when Dick arrived back at the Warehouse. The place felt even more empty now that the Team had gone MIA. He sat in front of the computers, Tim's Birdarang between his hands, studying it at different angles. The computer played today's news but Dick was hardly paying any attention to it, that is until a certain hated alien appeared on the screen.
"...And in my role as the Reach's ambassador to your world, I want to take this opportunity to thank this great hero," The Ambassador was saying. Dick sat forward, curious as to what hero the Reach is referring to. He had a bad idea that he was going to hate the answer. "...A hero who almost single-handedly saved the planet Earth from the War World! He saved your lives, he saved our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you..." The Reach ambassador moved aside and Dick snapped the birdarang he was holding as a familiar blue armor appeared on the screen. "...Blue Beetle!"
He should have known....he should have seen this coming! All the suspicions he has had since Green Beetle first introduced himself to the Team have finally been confirmed. Green didn't fix Jaime's scarab at all, he rebooted it, letting the scarab take full control over its host and giving the Reach wide-open access to the Team.
The realization had come too late, now the price has been paid, a heavy price. Dick watched as the young boy in blue armor waved to the crowds, saying thank you to everyone and the Reach, especially the Reach, for giving him the power to save the world. He swear his body was shaking as he listened to the boy talk, the Reach, the Reach is to blame for this, for all of this. They are the reason Percy and the others are gone, they are the reason he had to be cut off from her once again after just getting the girl back.
Nightwing would have smashed his fist straight through the computer if it weren't for the beep in his ear that sounded just as his knuckles were a mere inch away from the screen. He sighed and pressed the comm. "What?" He asked irritated.
"Hello to you too, Fearless Leader," an all too familiar voice called out and Dick's eyes widened.
"Megan?"
See you all in the next update!
I Purple You~