1. Chapter 1 (1/2)
heroes
amy e antonucci
amy e antonucci
2
6
2000-08-24t12:25:00z
2000-08-24t12:25:00z
11
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9.2720
"come on, guys, this way," rickey led his friends. on the way home from school today, he had
iefly checked out a newly emptied warehouse, and was now leading his usual
group of friends to check it out.
rickey, kevin, scotty, and eric spent most of their time exploring the
old run down buildings of bludhaven in the frames of mind of their favorite
heroes.
rickey was wearing black sweatpants, and a black sweatshirt
that had a blue stripe. he had colored the stripe with a fa
ic pen which he
had used while visiting the local youth club.
on his back he had glued two fairly straight sticks he had found in
mealtide park to mimic nightwing's escrima sticks. he hadn't figured out yet
how to attach them so that he could get them out, so for now he usually just picked
up two other sticks when he needed to draw the weapons. rickey considered himself the foremost
authority on bludhaven's self-appointed vigilante, and anyone that disagreed
had a problem. and since rickey spent
most of his life looking after younger siblings, he possessed the leadership
quality needed to be bludhaven's protector.
as nightwing was rickey's idol, eric followed arsenal. he liked the archer's carefree attitude; how
he didn't listen to any authority. eric
wore an orangey-
own t-shirt with jeans.
eric didn't have the right pants, and he figured that arsenal would wear
jeans if he couldn't afford a real costume.
across his shoulder, he wore a
oken fiberglass bow that he had found
in the trash can near the local archery club's range.
scotty and kevin both liked the flash, and had argued over
who got to be flash on their adventures.
scotty tended to back down from conflict though, so kevin got the
role. as rickey was dressed in a black
sweatsuit, kevin donned a red sweatsuit with a yellow lightning bolt he had
drawn when rickey had drawn his wing design.
as the flash, kevin ran everywhere their adventures took them.
disappointed that he couldn't be the flash, scotty didn't
know who to be until rickey pointed out that if he were to be tempest, they
would have an almost complete team of titans.
scotty wasn't too open to the idea until rickey pointed out
that tempest was from atlantis, and if scotty would be him, scotty would be
able to
eath underwater. that made
scotty think again, and now he actually enjoyed being tempest. he certainly didn't have anything close to
tempest's costume, so he wore jeans too with a t-shirt from the gotham
aquarium. scotty's eyes were normally
own, but he knew that when anyone
looked at him when he was with his friends, they looked into purple eyes.
the band followed their leader to the warehouse. they climbed up a drain pipe—first
nightwing, than arsenal, tempest, and flash.
of course kevin complained that the flash wouldn't be last since he was
the fastest one there, but the rest of the team ignored him. rickey whispered, "this way," as though they
knew there were bad guys in the warehouse who must not hear them on the roof. he lead the team to a skylight, and looked
into it.
the rest of the team rushed to see after seeing rickey's
frozen expression complete with dropped jaw.
they saw a man dressed as nightwing—he looked like the real thing to the
boys' trained eyes—hanging suspended by his wrists.
even through nightwing's mask, the boys could tell that he was
badly
uised around both eyes, and that his right eye was swollen shut. his
lower lip was bloody and swollen, and his hair was matted with what the boys
hoped wasn't—but thought was—blood. his
costume was rent in numerous places, and he looked to be barely conscious as
his head hung weakly. the team watched
in silent horror as they watched two big, muscular men take turns hitting
him. rickey subconsciously moved his
hands to his abdomen as they watched the bigger man take a full-forced punch
into nightwing's gut. nightwing tried
to react by contracting his midsection, but his hanging position hindered his
instinctive motion. "it's him," rickey whispered in quiet horror.
rickey shook himself from his frozen terror and he looked to
his friends. "we've got to help him,
guys," he said.
"how?" scotty, aka tempest, questioned incredulously. "we can't take on those guys."
"we gotta think," rickey answered, "how would batman rescue
him?"
"easy," eric stated.
"he'd swing down through the skylight and take out those guys with two
kicks. we can't do that," he stated
matter-of-factly.
"we gotta think of something else," kevin said.
"what about a distraction?" scotty wondered out loud.
scotty's comment piqued rickey's interest, and he asked,
"like what?"
"i dunno," scotty answered, "what if one of us let them see
us and we ran away leading them away from him?"
"ok," rickey nodded, "who's the fastest of us?" he caught
kevin's give-me-a-
eak look, and rickey clarified, "this is real, kev. we gotta make sure." kevin sighed and
nodded.
"i think it's still kevin," eric pointed out. "he's good at
getting in small places too. he can get
away from those goons best i think."
eric's endorsement made kevin beam, and kevin nodded enthusiastically
when rickey looked at him asking if he was willing.
"ok, then kev's gonna run distraction. anyone got a knife? we're gonna need to cut him down." rickey
said.
"i got one," eric volunteered, producing a knife from his
back pocket. after all, arsenal was a
master weapons specialist; of course he'd have a knife.
"good," rickey said, taking the knife from eric, "let's go."
the team climbed back down the drain pipe and found the
nearest door to the horror scene they had seen.
after a nod from rickey, kevin ran into the building, and watched
until the goons saw him. he had decided
to take the low-profile approach because it would seem like he had accidentally
come upon the scene. he was near the
door when the goons started toward him, and he ran past his friends down the
street. the two men ran after him, not seeing the other three boys hidden
near the entrance.
as soon as they goons were gone, rickey, eric, and scotty
ran into the building. "oh, god,"
escaped scotty's lips as rickey quickly motioned for eric to let him up onto
his shoulders. eric complied, and
rickey started to cut the ropes as scotty held the badly beaten hero to keep
him from collapsing to the ground. as
soon as nightwing's wrists were free, scotty gently lowered the hero to the
ground.
nightwing was barely conscious, and rickey said with
urgency, "those guys are gonna be back.
we gotta hide him." the other
two nodded, and with scotty and eric on one arm each and rickey supporting
nightwing's head, the three boys tried to drag the hero. the motion though produced an immediate low
groan of protest from nightwing, and rickey noticed that his shoulders appeared
to be dislocated. rickey stopped his
friends, and said "we gotta do this another way." rickey studied the injured
hero lying before him, and directed his friends, "guys, get on either side of
him. lift him up. i'll get his head." eric and scotty complied, getting on either
side, and slid their hands under the nightwing's back. on the count of three, they lifted him,
allowing his legs to drag, and rickey stayed at his original position,
supporting the hero's head, and guiding the party to safety behind a stack of
boxes.
once they were sure they were out of sight from their
previous position, they lowered nightwing to the ground. rickey noted with alarm that nightwing was
unconscious and rickey quickly checked the hero's vitals. he could feel a pulse, and nightwing was
eathing, but even with his limited first aid skills, rickey knew the hero was
in bad shape. nightwing's right leg was
bent at an odd angle, and, remembering the beating they had witnessed, rickey
knew the hero was internally injured.
"i hope those goons get back and leave soon," rickey whispered to his
friends, "we gotta get him to a hospital."
they heard a crash as the goons reentered the
warehouse. frozen, they listened as
they heard the first man curse, "damn!
no way he could have gotten far."
rickey
eathed a sigh of relief.
apparently these men were too dimwitted to consider the possibility that
nightwing was receiving help.
"he's not gonna last long," the second one said, "let's go
back and say he's dead." rickey shook
his head; apparently those goons hadn't watched enough movies. everyone knew the boss was gonna ask for a
body. but now rickey didn't care; he
was just glad they were leaving. the boys listened carefully as the bullies
left the warehouse, and rickey cautiously peeked around the stack of boxes. he saw kevin rush in and look around, and
rickey made himself visible and waved his friend to the scene.
kevin rushed behind the boxes and gasped as he took in the
critically injured hero. rickey looked
at kevin's reaction, and restated grimly, "we gotta get him to a hospital,"
"shouldn't we take him to star labs? don't all heroes go there?" scotty asked.
"only those with powers," rickey answered. "nightwing doesn't have special powers. plus star labs is in gotham. there's no way we can get him there."
"either way," eric stated, "we've gonna have a hard time
getting him anywhere. he's too heavy
for any of us to carry, and if we try to carry him together, we could kill
him."
rickey nodded in agreement, and thoughtfully looked at
nightwing's battered form. "we need to make a stretcher. let's look in these boxes. scotty, watch him.
make sure he stays alive, ok?" grimly, scotty nodded, and moved
to sit next to nightwing's still form.
the other three boys started to tear open boxes, looking for
anything that might help. after a few
minutes, scotty alerted his friends as they heard a low groan. nightwing was regaining consciousness. rickey moved quickly to kneel by the hero
and he gently rested his hand on nightwing's shoulder, "nightwing?" he
tested. the hero responded by groaning
again, but didn't open his eyes. rickey
felt unshed tears surface as he spoke gently to the hero, "nightwing, try to
stay awake, ok? we're going to help
you." there was no response from the
hero, and after a few moments, rickey glanced worriedly at scotty and went back
into motion, standing and quickly returning to the boxes.
he had just gotten back to the boxes when kevin produced a
blanket, and announced, "what about this? we can put him on it and lift him up
by it."
rickey came over to his friend and inspected the find,
"yeah, i think it will work. good work,
kev," kevin beamed again. rickey took
the blanket and spread it out next to nightwing.
he moved to stand over the hero, and stated, "ok, on three. one. two. three."
they carefully lifted nightwing onto the blanket, although the
movement still produced a weak protest from the hero.
rickey was glad to hear it though, since it meant nightwing was
doing his part by remaining conscious.
with a boy on each corner, they carefully lifted nightwing with the
makeshift hammock. "ok, i think we can
do this." the boys moved slowly, careful not to jar the barely conscious man. "hospital's two blocks away. we can do this, guys."
the young heroes had gone a block when they were descended
upon by their namesakes. they jumped
as, carrying arsenal, troia flew down into the boys' path. "nightwing!" troia cried as she came close
to dropping her teammate and rushed to the scene, ignoring the boys, and
inspecting her fallen teammate.
arsenal acknowledged the boys with a nod, and addressed the
dumbfounded youths, "hey, guys, what happened?"
he noted the boys' dress, and would have
oken into a grin if
the situation hadn't been so serious.
taking rushed turns, the boys relayed the rescue, and rickey
ended with, "we were taking him to the hospital."
arsenal nodded approval.
his attention was shifted to troia as she stated in panic, "he's dying,
roy!"
roy suppressed the panic that threatened to rise in him as
he address the boys again, "good job, guys.
that was some good thinking. we
can take him to the hospital now, ok?"
in awe, the boys nodded.
**
rickey and his 'teammates' were on the rooftop of another warehouse they had found—they hadn't
returned to the warehouse in which the found nightwing since they had rescued
him—when they were visited unexpectedly.
this time arsenal did
eak into a grin as he confronted the
'titans.' he inspected eric, and said
good-naturedly, "those jeans just don't cut it, kid. remind me, and i'll help
you find some decent threads." he
watched as eric
oke into a
oad grin and then extended his inspection to the
rest of them. his grin got wider as he looked at 'tempest'. he laughed, "garth is not gonna like that
one bit. we'll fix you all up,
ok?" the boys nodded enthusiastically.
roy sat on the roof and gestured for the boys to do the
same. they did so, and roy informed
them, "i just came by to tell you guys that nightwing's gonna be ok, thanks to
you. any longer, and he might not have
made it, so i think you guys saved his life."
roy smiled as the boys beamed.
"so you guys hang out as the titans a lot?"
"yeah!" kevin spoke up, "you guys are the best!"
roy laughed at the praise, and noted, "you guys don't have a
troia though. no girls?" he asked with a mischievous grin.
roy laughed as the boys made faces, and kevin said, "na,
girls can't do this. besides, they just
get in the way."
roy chuckled again; it had been a long time since he had
been among boys of this age; and he pointed out, "i don't think troia would
agree with that. and i think you'll
find a use for girls a little later."
the boys shrugged, and roy continued, "i was talking to the
rest of the titans, and we'd like to reward you guys for what you did for
nightwing. considering how you guys
like to be us, how about a little later when nightwing is out of the hospital,
we arrange for you guys to come visit the tower?
i'm sure nightwing would like to thank you himself, and we can
give you a little tour."
roy had his answer as the four boys' eyes went wide. roy turned his thoughts to another point he
came to make, and he started more seriously, "i want to make sure.. you guys know to just do this for pretend
right? i mean, how you guys found
nightwing shows you how dangerous what we do is."
he saw that he was getting through to the boys as they nodded
seriously. "good. well, how about you guys come by tomorrow
after school, and we'll help you get some real costumes." he smiled as the boys nodded
enthusiastically.
**
it had been about two weeks since the rescue, and today was