miss maggie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bossymarmalade) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
thejusticelounge2014-10-31 10:36 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2014-10-31 10:36 pm
the great wide open
ENC TXT: Hey, you got some time to check out an incident that’s in your neck of the woods? It looks to have some meta involvement, so I can send a Leaguer to accompany
[text] Meta involvement? Think it’s Hatter related? Send me the coordinates and I’ll meet whoever you got in mind there.
Ollie calls up the exact coordinates and sends them blipping over to Tim, following it up with a message.
TXT: Just outside of a town called Independence. It’s got the earmarks of Double Smile, although it seems more extreme than it used to be. That’s in line with the second generation Hatter drugs, worse than the first round.
TXT: Head over ASAP; the partner I’m sending you can get there much faster. Don’t have to tell you to take care.
TXT: But take care, Tim.
The cowl is barely in place when the coordinates arrive. Tim opens the message, reads it over twice and memorizes them as he memorized the different drugs Mad Hatter distributed so far. He is familiar with their names and appearance, but not their influence on people. Double Smile, the white powder, he won’t even know the difference between the first and second generation effects. “I hate surprises,” he mutters.
[text] Independence. Double Smile. Got it. On my way.
"Stay. Don’t eat anything." He points a finger at the ferret gazing his way.
[text] Don’t worry, Ollie.
Is all he sends before rushing out of the barn.
Ollie read Kyle’s texts, slowly turning beet red in the face. He managed to answer immediately, if tersely:
ENC TXT: FINE. Lian’s there too so I might as well be. Send me the address, I’m sending you the coordinates.
ENC TXT: Don’t drag your heels.
[Ring Txt to Queen] I KNOW
Kyle fumes, but the minute he explains to the kids that Uncle/Grandpa/Dad/family relation Ollie is coming to hang out with them, he is all smiles and cheer. Lian of course is ecstatic and Helen is pleased and Ramsey keeps talking to Thor. All is well in the Green Street Daycare run by Green Lantern. It’s got a fun sorta ring to it (no pun intended).
When Queen arrives, Kyle gives him a good glare - particularly when the older man boasts on and on about how him and Zee spent oh-so much time in this apartment when they were young and wild - and heads out, following the coordinates.
He spots a motorbike on the highway - red, with a black cape billowing behind the rider of said motorcycle - and Kyle grins and flies down, matching the speed of the bike as he comes up beside Tim.
"On your left," he greets Red Robin with a grin.
Tim’s muttering is soft compared to the noise of the wind and his vehicle speeding along the road. “Meta human.. Could be alien.. Arkham inmate.. maybe.. dealing for Hatter.. Ivy and Inque had some..”
Tim talks — to everything, lately. Ever since he returned from abroad he noticed this peculiar new habit. Computers, books, Ferdinand, newscasters on the nightly news, his closet each morning, the coffeemaker, the expired creamer. He talks to Gotham City, and to his parents’ graves, to the books he reads and the reports he writes. He talks to his car and his motorcycle (not to mention his bad case of road rage). He talks to everything. Mindless chatter, mostly, when not on the job. It’s people, his family and the few friends he has, that he has the most trouble talking to.
"Green Lantern!" Tim’s eyes widen at the man’s sudden appearance, his hands tightening their grip on his motorcycle. Note to self, focus while driving. "You’re the Leaguer GA mentioned," he states rather than asks, glancing at the man’s happy face and showing a small smile. Out of all the people, he feels glad it’s Kyle, one of the few exceptions.
"That I am," Kyle confirms cheerily. He refrains from griping about Green Arrow and concentrates on the matter at hand. "So GA mentioned that this’s to do with those Hatter…Mad Hatter drugs? But also alien? That’s kinda weird. Two separate things, if you ask me."
The Mad Hatter. Kyle will never understand the strangeness of Gotham criminals. ”If there’s alien activity, best you let me assess the situation first, okay Red? Reddy? Hrm.” Kyle makes a noise, as they both turn off Highway 75 and onto a country road, bracketed by large agriculture fields. ”I’m just glad we’re not headed into the actual town.”
"Would make more sense if it isn’t of alien origin. Might be a meta escaped from Arkham though. Posion Ivy and Inque are acquainting the public with their new pills and chances are they’re Mad Hatter material," Tim tells the flying man beside him. "Can’t be them however, GA sounded uncertain and he’s well aware of Ivy and Inque’s M.O."
Tim nods in agreement, eyes rolling at the nicknames. A more deserted patch of land means less collateral damage, hopefully. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for their villain to pop up there however. Independence city itself is a more lucrative place to wreck havoc, but let’s not give them any ideas. “See what you can find out. Shouldn’t take me long to catch up with you.”
"Inque?" Kyle isn’t particularly versed in Gotham rogues, but that name seems new to him. However, he’s distracted by the tourist attraction signs posted intermittently along the country road. They were all for…Little House on the Prairie? That old show from the 80s that his mother adored? "Waitaminute - are we - are we headed to the old home-site of Laura Ingalls?!"
In the distance, they can hear a booming crash, the noise deafeningly loud as it rolls across the flat landscape. Smoke plumes in the distance, and it looks like something large is silhouetted in the billowing darkness, reaching sky-high. Kyle looks over at Tim and says, ”I’m gonna take a look.” He seems approving of Tim’s cautious stance, preferring to check out the scene first before the kid moves in. It’s a mindset that’d make Tim balk, Kyle’s sure; but the Lantern might still be in daycare-mode.
After about a minute or two, Tim can see a green light through the dark smoke, arcing towards him. It only takes a few seconds to realize that Kyle is that ball of green light, and he hurtles into a field on Tim’s left. ”Owwww…” Kyle groans as he sits himself up, rubbing his head. ”Mr. Ingalls sure isn’t gonna like this.”
In the distance, a garbled mechanical noise - like someone trying to auto-tune a roar - and a towering robotic being steps out from the smoke, looking for the Green Lantern who attacked it.
"A female shape shifter-” he tries to explain before Kyle’s gone. Analyzing the situation, Tim halts with a cautious look in the direction of the smoke. Kyle’s crashing beside him is a little unnerving. “GL! You ok-?!” Tim watches the giant being move forward and tries to estimate its height and weight. He’s still working on the numbers as it spots them and steps towards the lonesome one room cabin on the prairie instead of their way.
"Better not stay in one position," he tells his comrade, getting back into gear and revving his motorcycle. Through the communicator in his ear, he contacts Kyle. "Spotted anything suspicious or is he just angry in general? Perhaps he never liked the show?" He asks the man.
At the sound of concern in Tim’s voice, Kyle shakes his head hard to clear the wooziness and is back up in the air. The robotic thing stands about four meters tall, with long gangly limbs that seem to be connected by thick ropes of cable and wire. It looks, ultimately, like a badly-designed anime mecha.
"Oh no, not the cabin!" Kyle exclaims also seeing the robot thing loping slowly and awkwardly back to the museum site. It lets out a long, garbled wail - again, like a human voice, but auto-tuned so it sounds mechanical - and reaches out towards the old cabin.
Kyle speaks over the comms to Tim as he flies around to face the robot, constructing a giant football dummy to tackle the robot and push it away from the cabin. “My ring isn’t scanning its materials as alien in nature - just normal Earth-based stuff - plastic, metal and…flesh? There’s living flesh somewhere in there!” Kyle gives another shove, and the robot groans and flails. ”Red - see if you can trip it up somehow, I wanna get this thing off balance and immobile on the ground where it won’t hurt any historical sites.”
Plastic, metal and flesh? Doesn’t sound alien at all. A Meta wouldn’t have need for a robot either, unless perhaps its power is to attract mentioned material and shape it into their preferenced form? They’ll find out soon enough. Can’t get off guard simply because he’s a bit disappointed.
Tim’s already aiming his grapple gun when Kyle’s request filters through. Working with Kyle feels easy, somehow. Great minds think alike? He hums thoughtfully and shoots, hook penetrating the metal of the robot’s left leg. “Can’t promise it’ll fall in the right direction. Might need one of your dummies,” he responds, and starts circling around its feet. He sees the robot swing left and right, almost like a drunkard trying to keep its balance. “Now, GL!”
"Roger that," Kyle responds, and it’s clear from the warmth in his voice that he’s approving of Tim’s methods. It’s effective without being violent…Kyle still remembers that day at Ferris Air with Jason, when he sliced the arms of Humpty Dumpty without a second thought. He doesn’t want to repeat that, not ever again if he can help it.
He gives a final shove with his dummy, and the robot thing flails its arms and gives a high-pitched wail. It does indeed do what they hope and falls away from any of the historical buildings…and instead, topples down towards Tim’s bike.
"Bail! Bail!" Kyle yells in alarm, even as he tries to ineffectually scoop Tim off his bike with a giant baseball glove. His head is still woozy, his concentration somewhat shot - he can’t concentrate enough to maintain two constructs at once. All he can hope for the moment is that Tim made it out of the robot’s path as it lands on the dry grass with a loud wheezing noise and another plume of thick black smoke.
"Red Robin!" Kyle flies around the prone (tired? can a robot be tired?) robot. "Check in, check in, c’mon kiddo…"
Alright. Perhaps he was a bit too optimistic about working with Kyle. The man nearly got him squashed like a bug if it hadn’t been for Tim’s training and quick reflexes (thank you Dick). He dove off his motorcycle and toward the space in between the robot’s torso and arm where he’s crouching and coughing as a result of the smoke gathered around him. His heart pounds in his chest and ears, deafening him until Kyle’s frantic voice calls from above.
"Calm down. I’m alright," he says a bit breathless. He stands and rushes away from the fallen being and the smoke. He emerges and longs to pull down his cowl, refrains of course, but yearns silently. "Can you scan it again? Upclose and personal this time. See if you can detect anything that looks Meta," he requests coughing once more.
Despite Tim’s slightly irritated tone (which sounds a lot like Kate, if Kyle really thinks about it), Kyle nevertheless smiles in relief when he hears Tim’s confirmation of okayness. He rubs his head - he can feel a bump in the back of his crown, guh - and with his ringed hand, whips coils around the fallen robot to bind it firmly to the ground. Nice and immobile. It doesn’t look much like it has any fight left in it anyway. Kyle flies down, locating Tim and standing next to him.
"I’ll scan for the drug," Kyle decides out loud, to Tim. "Since GA said it was drug related but…I’m not entirely sure how a robot takes drugs." He snickers, and looks sidelong at Tim to share the joke, but the kid is just a myriad of frowning and deep thought. It’s pretty darn Batman, not that Kyle would point that out.
"It’s techno-organics…amazing." Kyle focuses his will and constructs a giant screen in front of them, like an X-Ray machine that scans the robotic creature’s insides. "There’s traces of the chemical make-up of the drug in the robot, alright. Uh, in its…blood? Oil?" In light green shapes against the dark green screen, Tim can make out humanish internal systems - things that technically look like a skeletal system, organs, arterial…and in the robot’s belly, Tim can see a small human face, crying out soundlessly.
From the way the Lantern startles, it’s clear that Kyle sees the same thing. ”It’s a - that’s a human being inside the robot. Oh sweet jesus. We gotta get the person outta there!”
The robot seems to hear Kyle say this, and it moans in response…more like a cry of protest.
Kyle’s sense of humour is beyond him at the moment. Nothing sounds remotely funny as he inspects the robot’s construction and waits for the Green Lantern to complete the scan. So far nothing made sense about this situation: no sight of any alien or meta being or the drugs. Was Green Arrow mistaken?
He squints his eyes at Kyle’s green screen and the slightly disturbing image it shows. A human trappen withinthe metal frame, in it’s stomach? “Wait, we’re not certain the human’s controlling the robot or not, or what its human form is capable of and what it may do if we free it,” he raises an arm to barricade his comrade, knowing he wishes to save whoever’s in there. Tim broadens his shoulders and sticks to the uneasy feeling in his gut. “Perhaps a cyborg experiment gone wrong?” he asks himself in a quiet mumble, trying to comprehend the idea of a robot using drugs.
"But we have to get —!" Kyle pauses when the black gloved arm extends in front of him and he turns to look over at Tim. Even under the cowl, Tim’s expression looks, feels, uneasy. Kyle settles back on his heels, and looks from Red Robin, back to the softly moaning robotic creature.
"Could be. You think maybe one’s dependent on the other for life support," Kyle says softly, agreeing that Tim’s theory might be right. The way the robot has seemed to completely give up, it’s just strange. Kyle looks sidelong at Red Robin. "Y’know some of these drugs - they can make people mutate. Mutate into terrible, bizarre, barely human things. Maybe even turn flesh into metal…" Kyle shrugs. "Anything is possible."
And as a space cop, he isn’t even exaggerating. Kyle gives Tim a nod - I won’t hurt it - and moves over to the robot. He constructs a device that looks like a very fancy technical stethoscope carefully along the belly of the robot, watching it carefully. It remains still, watching him back. Kyle beckons Tim over.
"Put your ear to the stethomometer," Kyle tells him. He grins. "It’s a Korugaran medical instrument, don’t ask about its mechanics, I just learned it from my Lantern friend. You should be able to hear and speak to the human that’s inside the robot."
Tim doesn’t need to say anything to the robot when he uses the stethomometer; using the construct, he will hear a small female voice, faintly pleading over and over: ”Don’t hurt my brother…”
Tim tilts his head and cups his chin as he lets everything that Kyle’s saying sink in. He has decided to leave it up to him to fill the silence, muting him whe necessary. There are still a lot of sensible things if he listens carefully. For example: he didn’t know about the mutant effect some of the drugs could have on the users. He files this piece of information carefully and inches closer when Kyle motions him too. He will have to question him about that technology later, perhaps ask if W.E. can utilize it. More of that later.
Just what they thought: the human and the robot are connected, or at least familiar with each other. “Your brother? The robot?” Tim asks the girl, hands roaming the metal surface in search for latches.
Kyle looks like he wants to know what the person inside the robot is saying, but he keeps his distance, watching Tim’s fingers skimming across the robot’s surface. He instead concentrates on monitoring the robot itself, making sure it doesn’t try to attack again.
The girl inside the robot belly keeps speaking. ”You…can hear me…? Samuel was getting high…as usual…but then he became…a monster…” The girl’s breathing gets more laborious as she speaks, her voice getting more fluttered and weak. ”He swallowed me…I’m so….scared…”
The robot moans again, the light in its eyes flickering.
"Hey - hey, this doesn’t look good," Kyle flies over to the robot’s head and he flicks the side with his fingers, like one would do a malfunctioning TV. "What’re they saying, Red? What’s the person saying?"
"Thegirl says the robot’s her brother. Name’s Samuel and he was getting high on drugs when changing into this and swallowing his sister, the girl. If what you said earlier, about the drugs mutating people, is correct, we have ourselves a mutating drug case right here," Tim explains to his partner before turning back to the girl.
"We are going to help you and your brother. We don’t want to hurt him, but we might have to, a little, to get you out. Do you understand?" he speaks slowly using the stethomometer.
"He’s…my twin…" The girl whispers, and then gives a little cough-choke, before falling silent.
"Siblings?" Kyle says, and stares back at the now prone robot. The light is completely gone from its eyes. "Mierda - looks like we got another problem, Red." Kyle frowns at his ring for a moment, as if listening to it; then he looks back at Tim. "The drug’s run its course and the robot’s - Samuel’s body is exhausted. He’s unconscious - or - no - he’s going into shock."
Kyle flies over to where Tim is, nodding for him to move up to the top of the robot. ”Please tell me you know medical first aid stuff. I know you know how to navigate through technology. See if you can use that big brain of yours to keep Samuel alive - I’ll work on getting his sister out of his belly.”
The Lantern looks up at Tim, briefly squeezing his shoulder - a tactic he picked up from Jason, ironically - and he smiles. ”Not exactly a run-of-the mill beat ‘em up badguy, is this. We’re gonna save them both, don’t you worry.”
He turns back to the belly of the robot - of Samuel - and his ring constructs a thin laser. Kyle speaks through the stethomometer at the girl. ”Hold tight. We’re getting you outta there.”
Tim tenses and frowns deeply. Even the comforting hand on his shoulder can´t ease his muscles. “Shock?” he questions in disbelief. Of course he´s familiar with First aid, but on a robot? No, wait, mutant. He can do this, he knows the signs and symptoms and how to proceed.
"Samuel, I don’t know if you can hear me, but you have to stay still no matter what, alright?" he speaks to the transformed boy checking on his shallowing breathing. He contemplates raising the feet about a foot higher than the head, knows he doesn’t have the strength and focusses on keeping Samuel breathing instead. CPR was going to be difficult with the metal chest though. What will happen if he cuts it? Will he draw blood? And how will Samual react to the pain? He can’t afford endangering the girl that way.
Tim grunts at the many little complications and looks at Kyle over his shoulder.This is really not his cup of tea. ”Get her out quickly, I can’t properly perform CPR without breaking my hands. I’ll distract him, keep him focussed and warm.”
"I’ve never given a C-Section before, nevermind on a - whoa." Kyle lowers his pin-point laser beam towards the belly of Samuel, but he pulls back in time to notice what Tim had been looking for - "I found hinges. Hinge-type things, anyway. Maybe if I can open him up that way…" Kyle concentrates on the hinges instead, and Tim hears a rather disturbing sizzling noise. The smell is almost unbearable - like a mix of burning flesh and burning rubber.
"Nearly there—" The belly of the robot pops open, and Kyle dives in with both arms, extracting a teenaged girl - about seventeen years old - from a muck of what looks like blood and oil mixed together.
Samuel starts to spasm and twitch. His sister is gasping for air, but when he starts to tremble, she looks over, alarmed. She reaches out to Tim, her hand outstretched. ”Please!! Save him!”
"n—no—zzt—kill—” The robot starts stammering, voice still sounding auto-tuned. ”kill —zzt— kill me—”
Kyle looks over at Tim and he’s worried the kid is completely out of his element. He starts talking, lowering the girl to the ground. ”Samuel isn’t gonna revert back to normal. He’s stuck this way, Red Robin.” The Lantern flies over. ”I’m gonna put him in a stasis shell and fly him to the closest S.T.A.R. Labs, hope they’ll take him in, but…” It’s clear what Kyle is saying. By the time he does this, there’s no guarantee Samuel will stay alive during the trip.And even if he lives, what then?
But Samuel is most likely to die. Tim knows this even as he pushes down on the mutant’s shoulders to keep him from jerking too much. Chance of survival even considering Kyle’s speed is barely existent. All because he didn’t know how to stabilize the boy’s heartbeat before the spasming began. His eyes flicker to the girl as he loosens his grip and nods at the Green Lantern.
"Take him there, they’ll know what to do," he says, playing along, because that’s basically what they’re doing - pretending the boy still has a chance of survival so his sister won’t have a nervous breakdown. She’s going to need theraphy, Tim thinks as he approaches her and seeks eyecontact, tries to pull her attention from her brother’s body. "Green Lantern is going to look after your brother. But you need medical attention too. We don’t know if any of the drugs penetrated your system," he tells the quivering girl, carefully taking a hold of her shoulders.
Kyle lingers just a moment longer, watching Tim carefully. But beneath that Red Robin cowl, he can’t discern much. The kid’s voice however, drops low and grave and from that alone, Kyle gauges that Tim understands the worst is at hand.
It makes Kyle angry, quite honestly. This freak of nature Mad Hatter fool, playing around with chemicals and turning poor innocent people into monsters, killing them…he turns sharply, creating a pod of green light over Samuel.
The girl looks up at Tim, her dark brown eyes filled with sorrow, but also like she’s seeking some sort of solace in the red-clad hero before her. ”I’ve seen you on the internet…” she whispers to Tim and curls herself into his arm, crying, letting him take over. “Samuel really loved ‘Little House on the Prairie’ when we were growing up…” She can’t finish her sentence as she dissolves into more tears.
Kyle flies away with her brother, but opens up comms to Tim once he’s in the air.
"Collect any of the remaining drugs, if she’s got ‘em, or if they’re at Samuel’s place and get her to the authorities once you’ve checked her over." Kyle pauses and then adds, "I’m sorry Red. We’ll meet up in the Watchtower, okay?"
Tim doesn’t watch Kyle go, doesn’t need to because he trusts the man to do his part. The more difficult part, really. Tim’s grateful. He gathers the girl in his arms, feeling her weight against his chest as she cries over the loss and agony. Meanwhile he thinks, analyzes, prepares the steps they have to take to secure the girl’s safety and remove whatever drugs Samuel used so others won’t get harmed. He tilts his head back from the girl’s brown pixie hair. “Will do. Meet you there, GL,” he replies shortly, voice softening as he looks down at the quivering girl.
"My name is Red Robin. I’m sorry you and your brother had to experience this, but you’re not out of danger yet, miss..?" He speaks carefully, arms releasing the girl in favour of searching for any obvious injuries. None. Some bruising, and a scratch on her upper arm is all. "Sam-Samantha," the girl replies between hiccups. She wipes at her eyes, but her tears appear endless when Tim gently lifts her chin with his hand. No dilated eyes, no other signs of drugs. Of course her red, glassy eyes and runny nose could be symptons disguised within her grief. He can’t risk it, decides to ask for a sample of her blood later to run some tests.
"Samantha, I need you to tell me what happened. Were you with your brother when he used the drugs and changed?" The girl nods, biting her lips and throwing her face back into his chest with another heartwrenching wail. Tim lays a hand on her back and waits, eyes searching for his motorcycle and gauging the damage it took when Samuel came falling his way. His left mirror is busted and there are dents and scratches from the rough terrain, but it should still function. "Take me there, we’ll take my motorcycle."
Samantha willingly directed Red Robin into the small town of Independence. It was so early in the morning, the sleepy smalltown was only just waking up. Everything about it seemed charming and quaint - not exactly the sort of place the media focused on when talking about youth drug use.
But Samantha kept directing Tim, towards a nondescript slightly dilapidated building that stood among the other storefronts of the main street. She pointed up to the second storey. ”Our - our apartment,” she whispered. It looked like a couple windows were shattered, and the back door was busted out.
Inside the apartment was just sad to look at. Barely any furniture, tons of empty ramen noodle packets strewn around the tiny kitchen, and some young teenager who Samantha said was one of Samuel’s friends strewn on a dirty mattress, fast asleep. On a heap of blankets were a couple empty tiny ziploc bags, empty of the powder, but each packet decorated with two purple smiley-face stickers.
"He started using drugs once we moved out here…." Samantha said miserably, rubbing her wrists together. “‘scuse me I gotta - i gotta take a shower."
Tim followed Samantha silently, taking in the place she and her brother called their home. He had seen many similar places in Gotham, in mainly abandoned, decayed buildings. It is unbelievable how one can sleep here at night. The appartment is filthy, cramped, unhygenic, unpleasant. Tim quirks an eyebrow at the slumbering teen, not spotting any of the drugs near his snoring body and therefore not questioning his identity. He steps forward and confiscates the familiar bags, scowling at their empty state.
"DId he use it on a regular basis? How much a week?" Tim asks turning back to the girl when mentioning a shower to clean her from the odd mixture glued to her clothing and hair. The mixture of blood and oil hadn’t gone unnoticed to Tim, but he didn’t want to remind her she was covered with her brother’s blood. As he nods at her and tells her he will wait for her here, he prepares to use a sterile double-tipped cotton swab to collect some of the goo for analyzes.
"I doubt you are in any danger of changing since you didn’t come in direct contact with the drugs, but we don’t know what made your brother transform yet, so I am going to take a sample, alright?" he explains to her as he shows the cotton swab.
While Samantha is in the shower, Tim hears Kyle’s voice coming through his comms.
"Red Robin, I got Samuel to S.T.A.R. Labs, they’re uh, well. They took him in to operate on. They were…pretty…interested in his case.” Kyle’s voice came through a little tense and neutral. ”I’ll stay here, see what the verdict is. You doing okay?”
Samantha emerges from the bathroom in a giant baggy sweater and yoga pants, toweling her hair. She still looks like she’s in shock, but much more calm than before. ”He…used drugs for a while. Only socially…” she justifies, as if that made it better. ”But Samuel picked up these at a party in - in - in the city. In Wichita. He said…they were the best on the market…” Her lip trembles, and she starts to cry again. She holds out a bundle of her clothes, covered in the dark liquids, including her twin’s blood. “Here. You might need this for…for evidence…”
The sleeping boy stirs, stares at Samantha with a pleasant (if slightly high) greeting smile, and then stares at Red Robin. ”Cool…” the guy says, before falling asleep again.
Tim stares at the sleeping teen on the thin mattress while Kyle reports his progress. His eyes narrow at his choice of words. He knows they are interested, alright. And that’s why he doesn’t trust them one bit. “GL, make sure they perform the surgery and do nothing else. Who knows what they’ll do with Samuel’s dna or other tissue,” he warns his companion suspiciously.
"I’m fine, the girl is obviously shaken. Her name is Samantha. I’m at the appartment she shares with her brother; it looks trashed, probably caused by Samuel’s transformation. There are three bags of Double Smile. The drugs is gone, but I’m confiscating them, as well as samples from Samantha’s clothing to analyze at the Watch Tower," the says kneeling down to take the bags and eye the snoring teenager again, wondering if the boy took some of the drugs as well. He thinks of taking some of his blood when the girl re-appears.
He listens carefully, files important information in his memory as she speaks. “Thank you,” he says taking the clothing from her, offering her a kind smile. She’s still lightly trembling, the poor girl. “Do you know who this person was, giving them to your brother at that party?”
The interruption of the sleeping boy causes Tim to bristle and he is suddenly overcome with an urge to yank him off his lazy ass and out of the appartment unless the guy makes himself useful and give him a blood sample. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, he lets the anger pass. “Stay away from drugs and people who use it. There are dangerous types on the market and they are anything but good,” he warns Samantha.
"Already on it, Red," Kyle responds, although he has that same warm tone he’d used before, that pleased, easy tone. "I’m keeping a close eye on them, Green Lantern’s a name that’s got clout." He listens to Tim’s report, making a small ‘hm’ noise.
"Okay. All of what you’re saying needs to be reported to Gren Arrow, he’s taking point on this case. Let - let Samantha know her twin’s in good hands and they’ll…" Kyle takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly. "Tell her they’ll do everything they can to keep him alive."
Samantha shakes her head to Tim’s question. ”You think I used to go to those stupid parties? I don’t know who gave them to him, I’m sorry.” She shakes her head, wiping back tears that were starting to be more angry and scared.
”I should’ve kept a better eye on him, I should’ve - I should’ve stopped him from taking all those stupid—” She takes a couple steps towards Tim, her tears pouring more freely now as she pushes her face against Tim’s caped shoulder for comfort.
Tim closes his eyes momentarily, concentrating on Kyle’s voice and how the tone changes from the kind, confident man he knows to an uncertain undertone that causes him to feel mildly nauseous. “I’ll write GA a full report on our findings asap. I want to ask some more questions and make sure Samantha won’t be alone,” he tells Kyle softly, taking deep breaths to calm his body and mind.
He turns to the girl and recognizes a certain pattern unfolding before his eyes when Samantha becomes angry at herself rather than the dealer who gave her brother the drugs, or the boy who accepted them. If she looked after Samuel more carefully, had been more aware of the drug abuse - the self-blame feels too familiar. Tim releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding when the girl cries into his shoulder.
Yes, this entire situation could have been prevented seeing as you show awareness of his regular drug abuse and allowed him to empty three bags in this small appartment. How could you not have stopped him? They are the kind of words he scolds himself with all the time. Tim places a hand on her back, pressing harder than he initially intents. “You.. did all you could do,” he says, the words sounding uncertain even to his own ears. Tim shakes his head. “But sometimes you aren’t the right person to help them. The scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs are doing everything at the moment to save your brother.” Tim lowers his head and his voice becomes a mumble. “If they can’t help him, no one can at this point, and I want you to promise me you won’t blame this on yourself.” Wow, what a serious case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Samantha nods against Tim, not really listening to his exact words through her haze of despair, but obviously taking comfort in the fact that he’s talking to her in a soothing tone. He pulls back and wipes her tears with her palm, smiling at Tim.
"You’re a good superhero, Red Robin. I’m glad you saved me…" she says and then blushes. To cover it, she turns and kicks lightly at the foot of the sleeping young man. "Jeb, wake up! We’re gonna clean this place up for when Samuel comes back, make it nice for him and clean and nice." She turns and explains to Tim. "He’s our cousin. He’s our…only family…"
Jeb startles and then stands up, looking more awake now. He eyes Tim. ”Okay, you had your fun saving the damsel in distress. On your way now. This is our home.” He says as if trying to shoo away a dog. Jeb scrubs at his blond stubble. ”And uh, thanks fer your help an’ all. But we can handle it from here on in.”
Behind him, Samantha stands passively, lost in her own sad thoughts. She gives Tim one last, grateful smile, her hands clasped demurely in front of her.
Tim stands back, hardly praising himself as much as Samantha does. He wants to remind her of his companion, Green Lantern, who actually saved her from her brother’s stomach. When the cousin of the twins stirs and comes to live however, taking on an attitude that’s hardly friendly or polite, Tim’s demeanor hardens. It doesn’t feel right leaving her with him and the possibility of the cousin bringing in a new batch of drugs. Samantha doesn’t deserve to suffer even more because of someone’s addiction.
“Listen carefully,” he starts, stepping forward into Jeb’s personal space. His eyes narrow dangerously. “The drugs Samuel used is called Double Smile. You can recognize it by the two purple stickers with smileys on the bags. Don’t buy it again. Don’t use it or any other drug, you hear me? I’m keeping my eyes on you, so If you do, I am going after you,” he warns the scruffy teenager, letting him know bettering his life means no potential fights with a hero and letting Samantha know he will check on her to make sure she’s alright.
Red Robin steps back, holding Jeb’s gaze shortly and nodding at Samantha. “As soon as the scientists have news on Samuel, you’ll hear from me,” he says before leaving the trashed apartment. When outside the building, nearing his motorcycle, he contacts Kyle with a sigh. “GL, any news on Samuel? I’m off to the Watch Tower to run some tests on the bags and the clothing Samantha gave me. I’ll fill you in on my way there if you’re free.”
Jeb the cousin looks a little frightened - and who wouldn’t with a cowled, angry person stepping up close into his personal space. Even though Jeb was a good few inches taller than Tim, he still stumbled back a couple steps, cowed. But his fright turns into something darker and more defensive when Tim offers to keep in touch with Samantha.
She barely makes a squeak when Jeb leans forward again, shoving Tim against his shoulder.
"Hey freak - I got rights! You’re not the boss of me, just - b-b-because you wear tights and a mask! You’re the real threat for us normals! Just because we now got a way to fight back, get some power back using a drug - how’s that any different from you with your aliens and gamma rays and freak powers, huh? That’s me thinkin’ right. Me and Sammy, we were thinking right.” Jeb was getting himself worked up, ignoring Samantha’s pleas of ‘Jeb no, Red Robin saved us, he’s one of the GOOD ones!’, hopping around as if he is spoiling for a boxing match.
He raises his fist up, pumping it in the air like a protester. ”Rights not tights! Rights not tights!”
As the wiry, slight stale-smelling teen chants, Green Lantern’s voice crackles through Tim’s comms. ”Nothing yet, Red Robin. I’ll keep you posted when I got some news. Heading up to the Tower’s a good idea - I’ll meet you there in a few.”
"I might need a bit longer. Have some preaching to do," Tim tells Kyle when Jeb starts his tough act. Great, the guy is not only a druggie, but also a complete moron. Tim doesn’t resist the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose as Jeb chants and hops around him antagonizing a fight he will definitely lose without Tim even trying.
"Perhaps you didn’t see because you were wasting your life sleeping of a drugs haze, but your cousin Samuel - also a normal person, like you - transformed into a mutant because he used Double Smile drugs and endangered Samantha as well as everyone he crossed while on his way to the little house on the prairie. Samuel felt misserable after he changed, he asked me to kill him when Green Lantern and I rescued his sister from his stomach - meaning he ate her somehow. Chances are the drugs are killing him right now, but my companion in green tights is with him trying to prevent that. Do you want to experience that so badly, Jeb?”
Tim balls his fists as he tells Jeb’s what’s what, tries to get the facts through the teen’s thick skull and he’s close to shoving him the way he did, but violence is the last thing nervously pleading Samantha needs.
Jeb retreats into sulky glaring and not much else. It’s clear that Tim’s speech didn’t quite get through to him, possibly because he didn’t see what had become of Samuel, only that the twin had mutated into that robotic conglomeration of flesh and metal.
But he has enough smarts to realize that Samantha is upset; and although perhaps a part of him knows the caped hero speaks logic, his mind is still full of propaganda as he twists Red Robin’s words in his mind. He points at Tim accusingly. ”You guys sent him to the hospital,” he mutters. ”This’s your fault. We were jus’ tryina fight back. You hurt him…” But then he backs down and says no more.
Samantha takes this moment to rush to Tim. ”I’m so sorry,” she apologizes for Jeb. ”I’m gonna pray for you, and my brother. I know he’s gonna be okay.” She nods, her eyes bright as she holds onto Tim’s arm with both her hands.
At that moment, Green Lantern starts talking on Tim’s comms. ”Okay - the work on Samuel is more extensive than they originally thought. They - they offered to put Samantha up in a hotel in Keystone, so she can visit her brother and get checked out by the doctors here.” A pause. ”It’s all we can do for now, Red.”
No point in wasting any more air and energy on the guy. Tim grits his teeth for a moment, wanting to calm down and leave in peace least Samantha has to go through another argument. The girl holding on to his arms apologizes in Jeb’s place. Unnecessary, but kind. He offers her a small smile that hopefully shows her things will actually be okay.
Kyle’s news is both positive and negative. More extensive means smaller chance of survival, but they offered the girl a decent place to stay while she gets examined too, for her own safety.
"S.T.A.R. Labs has a place for you to stay while your brother is in their care. They also offered to check if you’re completely unharmed," he tells Samantha. His eyes shift to Jeb. Fudge. Tim reaches up to his communicator. "Best we can do, GL. Think they have room for one more? I got a relative of the twins who might have possibly been taking the drugs as well. He should be tested," he asks Kyle with a lowered voice, not wanting Jeb to hear their conversation. He will force the teen into S.T.A.R. Labs if necessary.
"Uh…lemme get back to you on that. Hold fast," Kyle blips off for a moment, just as Samantha makes a small jump of excitement and runs behind a curtained-off area that looks to be where she sleeps. She grabs a knapsack, stuffing some clothes into it. "Oh my gosh, I want to be with my brother, yes please! S.T.A.R Labs in Keystone City? That one? I’ve never been to Keystone before!"
Jeb does indeed look pissed off and on the verge of protesting again; clearly he wants to come along as well. His reasoning, Tim discerns from his muttering, is that it’s to keep an eye on Samantha and make sure those big-shot cityfolk don’t take advantage of her or use her to create more ‘caped vigilante freaks’.
Kyle returns on the comms. “Sure, we’ll bring down the whole Ingalls family,” Kyle says, referring to the family name of the characters from the Little House on the Prairie tv show. There’s a pause and then he continues, ”Sorry, that was in bad form. But yeah - S.T.A.R. would love to check out the relative too. Maybe find out why the drug affected Samual and not him. I’ll be there in ten minutes to pick up the lot of you. Lantern out.”
"We can laugh about that bad-timing joke later. And thanks, see you then," Tim replies with a small smile. The reference was actually pretty sharp and funny. The corners of his mouth dipped once again at the sight of Jeb’s flared nostrils, looking like a bull ready to go at him. Better not show him his back, Tim reasons whlie turning towards him.
"Don’t worry, I have arranged for the both of you to visit Samuel. Green Lantern and I won’t force you to do anything." But S.T.A.R Labs might. Let’s leave out the part of being examined. He can’t imagine the druggie jumping in joy for that to happen. Samantha should be clean, but one can’t be certain without proper testing. The girl looks thrilled to see her brother, urging Jeb on to pack whatever few possessions he owns and has to bring along.
While they prepare Jeb to come along, Tim turns to the shattered window in time to greet Kyle. “Watch the druggie, Jeb, he’s rebellious and thinks of us a freaks in tights,” he says as a greeting.
[text] Meta involvement? Think it’s Hatter related? Send me the coordinates and I’ll meet whoever you got in mind there.
Ollie calls up the exact coordinates and sends them blipping over to Tim, following it up with a message.
TXT: Just outside of a town called Independence. It’s got the earmarks of Double Smile, although it seems more extreme than it used to be. That’s in line with the second generation Hatter drugs, worse than the first round.
TXT: Head over ASAP; the partner I’m sending you can get there much faster. Don’t have to tell you to take care.
TXT: But take care, Tim.
The cowl is barely in place when the coordinates arrive. Tim opens the message, reads it over twice and memorizes them as he memorized the different drugs Mad Hatter distributed so far. He is familiar with their names and appearance, but not their influence on people. Double Smile, the white powder, he won’t even know the difference between the first and second generation effects. “I hate surprises,” he mutters.
[text] Independence. Double Smile. Got it. On my way.
"Stay. Don’t eat anything." He points a finger at the ferret gazing his way.
[text] Don’t worry, Ollie.
Is all he sends before rushing out of the barn.
Ollie read Kyle’s texts, slowly turning beet red in the face. He managed to answer immediately, if tersely:
ENC TXT: FINE. Lian’s there too so I might as well be. Send me the address, I’m sending you the coordinates.
ENC TXT: Don’t drag your heels.
[Ring Txt to Queen] I KNOW
Kyle fumes, but the minute he explains to the kids that Uncle/Grandpa/Dad/family relation Ollie is coming to hang out with them, he is all smiles and cheer. Lian of course is ecstatic and Helen is pleased and Ramsey keeps talking to Thor. All is well in the Green Street Daycare run by Green Lantern. It’s got a fun sorta ring to it (no pun intended).
When Queen arrives, Kyle gives him a good glare - particularly when the older man boasts on and on about how him and Zee spent oh-so much time in this apartment when they were young and wild - and heads out, following the coordinates.
He spots a motorbike on the highway - red, with a black cape billowing behind the rider of said motorcycle - and Kyle grins and flies down, matching the speed of the bike as he comes up beside Tim.
"On your left," he greets Red Robin with a grin.
Tim’s muttering is soft compared to the noise of the wind and his vehicle speeding along the road. “Meta human.. Could be alien.. Arkham inmate.. maybe.. dealing for Hatter.. Ivy and Inque had some..”
Tim talks — to everything, lately. Ever since he returned from abroad he noticed this peculiar new habit. Computers, books, Ferdinand, newscasters on the nightly news, his closet each morning, the coffeemaker, the expired creamer. He talks to Gotham City, and to his parents’ graves, to the books he reads and the reports he writes. He talks to his car and his motorcycle (not to mention his bad case of road rage). He talks to everything. Mindless chatter, mostly, when not on the job. It’s people, his family and the few friends he has, that he has the most trouble talking to.
"Green Lantern!" Tim’s eyes widen at the man’s sudden appearance, his hands tightening their grip on his motorcycle. Note to self, focus while driving. "You’re the Leaguer GA mentioned," he states rather than asks, glancing at the man’s happy face and showing a small smile. Out of all the people, he feels glad it’s Kyle, one of the few exceptions.
"That I am," Kyle confirms cheerily. He refrains from griping about Green Arrow and concentrates on the matter at hand. "So GA mentioned that this’s to do with those Hatter…Mad Hatter drugs? But also alien? That’s kinda weird. Two separate things, if you ask me."
The Mad Hatter. Kyle will never understand the strangeness of Gotham criminals. ”If there’s alien activity, best you let me assess the situation first, okay Red? Reddy? Hrm.” Kyle makes a noise, as they both turn off Highway 75 and onto a country road, bracketed by large agriculture fields. ”I’m just glad we’re not headed into the actual town.”
"Would make more sense if it isn’t of alien origin. Might be a meta escaped from Arkham though. Posion Ivy and Inque are acquainting the public with their new pills and chances are they’re Mad Hatter material," Tim tells the flying man beside him. "Can’t be them however, GA sounded uncertain and he’s well aware of Ivy and Inque’s M.O."
Tim nods in agreement, eyes rolling at the nicknames. A more deserted patch of land means less collateral damage, hopefully. Doesn’t make a lot of sense for their villain to pop up there however. Independence city itself is a more lucrative place to wreck havoc, but let’s not give them any ideas. “See what you can find out. Shouldn’t take me long to catch up with you.”
"Inque?" Kyle isn’t particularly versed in Gotham rogues, but that name seems new to him. However, he’s distracted by the tourist attraction signs posted intermittently along the country road. They were all for…Little House on the Prairie? That old show from the 80s that his mother adored? "Waitaminute - are we - are we headed to the old home-site of Laura Ingalls?!"
In the distance, they can hear a booming crash, the noise deafeningly loud as it rolls across the flat landscape. Smoke plumes in the distance, and it looks like something large is silhouetted in the billowing darkness, reaching sky-high. Kyle looks over at Tim and says, ”I’m gonna take a look.” He seems approving of Tim’s cautious stance, preferring to check out the scene first before the kid moves in. It’s a mindset that’d make Tim balk, Kyle’s sure; but the Lantern might still be in daycare-mode.
After about a minute or two, Tim can see a green light through the dark smoke, arcing towards him. It only takes a few seconds to realize that Kyle is that ball of green light, and he hurtles into a field on Tim’s left. ”Owwww…” Kyle groans as he sits himself up, rubbing his head. ”Mr. Ingalls sure isn’t gonna like this.”
In the distance, a garbled mechanical noise - like someone trying to auto-tune a roar - and a towering robotic being steps out from the smoke, looking for the Green Lantern who attacked it.
"A female shape shifter-” he tries to explain before Kyle’s gone. Analyzing the situation, Tim halts with a cautious look in the direction of the smoke. Kyle’s crashing beside him is a little unnerving. “GL! You ok-?!” Tim watches the giant being move forward and tries to estimate its height and weight. He’s still working on the numbers as it spots them and steps towards the lonesome one room cabin on the prairie instead of their way.
"Better not stay in one position," he tells his comrade, getting back into gear and revving his motorcycle. Through the communicator in his ear, he contacts Kyle. "Spotted anything suspicious or is he just angry in general? Perhaps he never liked the show?" He asks the man.
At the sound of concern in Tim’s voice, Kyle shakes his head hard to clear the wooziness and is back up in the air. The robotic thing stands about four meters tall, with long gangly limbs that seem to be connected by thick ropes of cable and wire. It looks, ultimately, like a badly-designed anime mecha.
"Oh no, not the cabin!" Kyle exclaims also seeing the robot thing loping slowly and awkwardly back to the museum site. It lets out a long, garbled wail - again, like a human voice, but auto-tuned so it sounds mechanical - and reaches out towards the old cabin.
Kyle speaks over the comms to Tim as he flies around to face the robot, constructing a giant football dummy to tackle the robot and push it away from the cabin. “My ring isn’t scanning its materials as alien in nature - just normal Earth-based stuff - plastic, metal and…flesh? There’s living flesh somewhere in there!” Kyle gives another shove, and the robot groans and flails. ”Red - see if you can trip it up somehow, I wanna get this thing off balance and immobile on the ground where it won’t hurt any historical sites.”
Plastic, metal and flesh? Doesn’t sound alien at all. A Meta wouldn’t have need for a robot either, unless perhaps its power is to attract mentioned material and shape it into their preferenced form? They’ll find out soon enough. Can’t get off guard simply because he’s a bit disappointed.
Tim’s already aiming his grapple gun when Kyle’s request filters through. Working with Kyle feels easy, somehow. Great minds think alike? He hums thoughtfully and shoots, hook penetrating the metal of the robot’s left leg. “Can’t promise it’ll fall in the right direction. Might need one of your dummies,” he responds, and starts circling around its feet. He sees the robot swing left and right, almost like a drunkard trying to keep its balance. “Now, GL!”
"Roger that," Kyle responds, and it’s clear from the warmth in his voice that he’s approving of Tim’s methods. It’s effective without being violent…Kyle still remembers that day at Ferris Air with Jason, when he sliced the arms of Humpty Dumpty without a second thought. He doesn’t want to repeat that, not ever again if he can help it.
He gives a final shove with his dummy, and the robot thing flails its arms and gives a high-pitched wail. It does indeed do what they hope and falls away from any of the historical buildings…and instead, topples down towards Tim’s bike.
"Bail! Bail!" Kyle yells in alarm, even as he tries to ineffectually scoop Tim off his bike with a giant baseball glove. His head is still woozy, his concentration somewhat shot - he can’t concentrate enough to maintain two constructs at once. All he can hope for the moment is that Tim made it out of the robot’s path as it lands on the dry grass with a loud wheezing noise and another plume of thick black smoke.
"Red Robin!" Kyle flies around the prone (tired? can a robot be tired?) robot. "Check in, check in, c’mon kiddo…"
Alright. Perhaps he was a bit too optimistic about working with Kyle. The man nearly got him squashed like a bug if it hadn’t been for Tim’s training and quick reflexes (thank you Dick). He dove off his motorcycle and toward the space in between the robot’s torso and arm where he’s crouching and coughing as a result of the smoke gathered around him. His heart pounds in his chest and ears, deafening him until Kyle’s frantic voice calls from above.
"Calm down. I’m alright," he says a bit breathless. He stands and rushes away from the fallen being and the smoke. He emerges and longs to pull down his cowl, refrains of course, but yearns silently. "Can you scan it again? Upclose and personal this time. See if you can detect anything that looks Meta," he requests coughing once more.
Despite Tim’s slightly irritated tone (which sounds a lot like Kate, if Kyle really thinks about it), Kyle nevertheless smiles in relief when he hears Tim’s confirmation of okayness. He rubs his head - he can feel a bump in the back of his crown, guh - and with his ringed hand, whips coils around the fallen robot to bind it firmly to the ground. Nice and immobile. It doesn’t look much like it has any fight left in it anyway. Kyle flies down, locating Tim and standing next to him.
"I’ll scan for the drug," Kyle decides out loud, to Tim. "Since GA said it was drug related but…I’m not entirely sure how a robot takes drugs." He snickers, and looks sidelong at Tim to share the joke, but the kid is just a myriad of frowning and deep thought. It’s pretty darn Batman, not that Kyle would point that out.
"It’s techno-organics…amazing." Kyle focuses his will and constructs a giant screen in front of them, like an X-Ray machine that scans the robotic creature’s insides. "There’s traces of the chemical make-up of the drug in the robot, alright. Uh, in its…blood? Oil?" In light green shapes against the dark green screen, Tim can make out humanish internal systems - things that technically look like a skeletal system, organs, arterial…and in the robot’s belly, Tim can see a small human face, crying out soundlessly.
From the way the Lantern startles, it’s clear that Kyle sees the same thing. ”It’s a - that’s a human being inside the robot. Oh sweet jesus. We gotta get the person outta there!”
The robot seems to hear Kyle say this, and it moans in response…more like a cry of protest.
Kyle’s sense of humour is beyond him at the moment. Nothing sounds remotely funny as he inspects the robot’s construction and waits for the Green Lantern to complete the scan. So far nothing made sense about this situation: no sight of any alien or meta being or the drugs. Was Green Arrow mistaken?
He squints his eyes at Kyle’s green screen and the slightly disturbing image it shows. A human trappen withinthe metal frame, in it’s stomach? “Wait, we’re not certain the human’s controlling the robot or not, or what its human form is capable of and what it may do if we free it,” he raises an arm to barricade his comrade, knowing he wishes to save whoever’s in there. Tim broadens his shoulders and sticks to the uneasy feeling in his gut. “Perhaps a cyborg experiment gone wrong?” he asks himself in a quiet mumble, trying to comprehend the idea of a robot using drugs.
"But we have to get —!" Kyle pauses when the black gloved arm extends in front of him and he turns to look over at Tim. Even under the cowl, Tim’s expression looks, feels, uneasy. Kyle settles back on his heels, and looks from Red Robin, back to the softly moaning robotic creature.
"Could be. You think maybe one’s dependent on the other for life support," Kyle says softly, agreeing that Tim’s theory might be right. The way the robot has seemed to completely give up, it’s just strange. Kyle looks sidelong at Red Robin. "Y’know some of these drugs - they can make people mutate. Mutate into terrible, bizarre, barely human things. Maybe even turn flesh into metal…" Kyle shrugs. "Anything is possible."
And as a space cop, he isn’t even exaggerating. Kyle gives Tim a nod - I won’t hurt it - and moves over to the robot. He constructs a device that looks like a very fancy technical stethoscope carefully along the belly of the robot, watching it carefully. It remains still, watching him back. Kyle beckons Tim over.
"Put your ear to the stethomometer," Kyle tells him. He grins. "It’s a Korugaran medical instrument, don’t ask about its mechanics, I just learned it from my Lantern friend. You should be able to hear and speak to the human that’s inside the robot."
Tim doesn’t need to say anything to the robot when he uses the stethomometer; using the construct, he will hear a small female voice, faintly pleading over and over: ”Don’t hurt my brother…”
Tim tilts his head and cups his chin as he lets everything that Kyle’s saying sink in. He has decided to leave it up to him to fill the silence, muting him whe necessary. There are still a lot of sensible things if he listens carefully. For example: he didn’t know about the mutant effect some of the drugs could have on the users. He files this piece of information carefully and inches closer when Kyle motions him too. He will have to question him about that technology later, perhaps ask if W.E. can utilize it. More of that later.
Just what they thought: the human and the robot are connected, or at least familiar with each other. “Your brother? The robot?” Tim asks the girl, hands roaming the metal surface in search for latches.
Kyle looks like he wants to know what the person inside the robot is saying, but he keeps his distance, watching Tim’s fingers skimming across the robot’s surface. He instead concentrates on monitoring the robot itself, making sure it doesn’t try to attack again.
The girl inside the robot belly keeps speaking. ”You…can hear me…? Samuel was getting high…as usual…but then he became…a monster…” The girl’s breathing gets more laborious as she speaks, her voice getting more fluttered and weak. ”He swallowed me…I’m so….scared…”
The robot moans again, the light in its eyes flickering.
"Hey - hey, this doesn’t look good," Kyle flies over to the robot’s head and he flicks the side with his fingers, like one would do a malfunctioning TV. "What’re they saying, Red? What’s the person saying?"
"Thegirl says the robot’s her brother. Name’s Samuel and he was getting high on drugs when changing into this and swallowing his sister, the girl. If what you said earlier, about the drugs mutating people, is correct, we have ourselves a mutating drug case right here," Tim explains to his partner before turning back to the girl.
"We are going to help you and your brother. We don’t want to hurt him, but we might have to, a little, to get you out. Do you understand?" he speaks slowly using the stethomometer.
"He’s…my twin…" The girl whispers, and then gives a little cough-choke, before falling silent.
"Siblings?" Kyle says, and stares back at the now prone robot. The light is completely gone from its eyes. "Mierda - looks like we got another problem, Red." Kyle frowns at his ring for a moment, as if listening to it; then he looks back at Tim. "The drug’s run its course and the robot’s - Samuel’s body is exhausted. He’s unconscious - or - no - he’s going into shock."
Kyle flies over to where Tim is, nodding for him to move up to the top of the robot. ”Please tell me you know medical first aid stuff. I know you know how to navigate through technology. See if you can use that big brain of yours to keep Samuel alive - I’ll work on getting his sister out of his belly.”
The Lantern looks up at Tim, briefly squeezing his shoulder - a tactic he picked up from Jason, ironically - and he smiles. ”Not exactly a run-of-the mill beat ‘em up badguy, is this. We’re gonna save them both, don’t you worry.”
He turns back to the belly of the robot - of Samuel - and his ring constructs a thin laser. Kyle speaks through the stethomometer at the girl. ”Hold tight. We’re getting you outta there.”
Tim tenses and frowns deeply. Even the comforting hand on his shoulder can´t ease his muscles. “Shock?” he questions in disbelief. Of course he´s familiar with First aid, but on a robot? No, wait, mutant. He can do this, he knows the signs and symptoms and how to proceed.
"Samuel, I don’t know if you can hear me, but you have to stay still no matter what, alright?" he speaks to the transformed boy checking on his shallowing breathing. He contemplates raising the feet about a foot higher than the head, knows he doesn’t have the strength and focusses on keeping Samuel breathing instead. CPR was going to be difficult with the metal chest though. What will happen if he cuts it? Will he draw blood? And how will Samual react to the pain? He can’t afford endangering the girl that way.
Tim grunts at the many little complications and looks at Kyle over his shoulder.This is really not his cup of tea. ”Get her out quickly, I can’t properly perform CPR without breaking my hands. I’ll distract him, keep him focussed and warm.”
"I’ve never given a C-Section before, nevermind on a - whoa." Kyle lowers his pin-point laser beam towards the belly of Samuel, but he pulls back in time to notice what Tim had been looking for - "I found hinges. Hinge-type things, anyway. Maybe if I can open him up that way…" Kyle concentrates on the hinges instead, and Tim hears a rather disturbing sizzling noise. The smell is almost unbearable - like a mix of burning flesh and burning rubber.
"Nearly there—" The belly of the robot pops open, and Kyle dives in with both arms, extracting a teenaged girl - about seventeen years old - from a muck of what looks like blood and oil mixed together.
Samuel starts to spasm and twitch. His sister is gasping for air, but when he starts to tremble, she looks over, alarmed. She reaches out to Tim, her hand outstretched. ”Please!! Save him!”
"n—no—zzt—kill—” The robot starts stammering, voice still sounding auto-tuned. ”kill —zzt— kill me—”
Kyle looks over at Tim and he’s worried the kid is completely out of his element. He starts talking, lowering the girl to the ground. ”Samuel isn’t gonna revert back to normal. He’s stuck this way, Red Robin.” The Lantern flies over. ”I’m gonna put him in a stasis shell and fly him to the closest S.T.A.R. Labs, hope they’ll take him in, but…” It’s clear what Kyle is saying. By the time he does this, there’s no guarantee Samuel will stay alive during the trip.And even if he lives, what then?
But Samuel is most likely to die. Tim knows this even as he pushes down on the mutant’s shoulders to keep him from jerking too much. Chance of survival even considering Kyle’s speed is barely existent. All because he didn’t know how to stabilize the boy’s heartbeat before the spasming began. His eyes flicker to the girl as he loosens his grip and nods at the Green Lantern.
"Take him there, they’ll know what to do," he says, playing along, because that’s basically what they’re doing - pretending the boy still has a chance of survival so his sister won’t have a nervous breakdown. She’s going to need theraphy, Tim thinks as he approaches her and seeks eyecontact, tries to pull her attention from her brother’s body. "Green Lantern is going to look after your brother. But you need medical attention too. We don’t know if any of the drugs penetrated your system," he tells the quivering girl, carefully taking a hold of her shoulders.
Kyle lingers just a moment longer, watching Tim carefully. But beneath that Red Robin cowl, he can’t discern much. The kid’s voice however, drops low and grave and from that alone, Kyle gauges that Tim understands the worst is at hand.
It makes Kyle angry, quite honestly. This freak of nature Mad Hatter fool, playing around with chemicals and turning poor innocent people into monsters, killing them…he turns sharply, creating a pod of green light over Samuel.
The girl looks up at Tim, her dark brown eyes filled with sorrow, but also like she’s seeking some sort of solace in the red-clad hero before her. ”I’ve seen you on the internet…” she whispers to Tim and curls herself into his arm, crying, letting him take over. “Samuel really loved ‘Little House on the Prairie’ when we were growing up…” She can’t finish her sentence as she dissolves into more tears.
Kyle flies away with her brother, but opens up comms to Tim once he’s in the air.
"Collect any of the remaining drugs, if she’s got ‘em, or if they’re at Samuel’s place and get her to the authorities once you’ve checked her over." Kyle pauses and then adds, "I’m sorry Red. We’ll meet up in the Watchtower, okay?"
Tim doesn’t watch Kyle go, doesn’t need to because he trusts the man to do his part. The more difficult part, really. Tim’s grateful. He gathers the girl in his arms, feeling her weight against his chest as she cries over the loss and agony. Meanwhile he thinks, analyzes, prepares the steps they have to take to secure the girl’s safety and remove whatever drugs Samuel used so others won’t get harmed. He tilts his head back from the girl’s brown pixie hair. “Will do. Meet you there, GL,” he replies shortly, voice softening as he looks down at the quivering girl.
"My name is Red Robin. I’m sorry you and your brother had to experience this, but you’re not out of danger yet, miss..?" He speaks carefully, arms releasing the girl in favour of searching for any obvious injuries. None. Some bruising, and a scratch on her upper arm is all. "Sam-Samantha," the girl replies between hiccups. She wipes at her eyes, but her tears appear endless when Tim gently lifts her chin with his hand. No dilated eyes, no other signs of drugs. Of course her red, glassy eyes and runny nose could be symptons disguised within her grief. He can’t risk it, decides to ask for a sample of her blood later to run some tests.
"Samantha, I need you to tell me what happened. Were you with your brother when he used the drugs and changed?" The girl nods, biting her lips and throwing her face back into his chest with another heartwrenching wail. Tim lays a hand on her back and waits, eyes searching for his motorcycle and gauging the damage it took when Samuel came falling his way. His left mirror is busted and there are dents and scratches from the rough terrain, but it should still function. "Take me there, we’ll take my motorcycle."
Samantha willingly directed Red Robin into the small town of Independence. It was so early in the morning, the sleepy smalltown was only just waking up. Everything about it seemed charming and quaint - not exactly the sort of place the media focused on when talking about youth drug use.
But Samantha kept directing Tim, towards a nondescript slightly dilapidated building that stood among the other storefronts of the main street. She pointed up to the second storey. ”Our - our apartment,” she whispered. It looked like a couple windows were shattered, and the back door was busted out.
Inside the apartment was just sad to look at. Barely any furniture, tons of empty ramen noodle packets strewn around the tiny kitchen, and some young teenager who Samantha said was one of Samuel’s friends strewn on a dirty mattress, fast asleep. On a heap of blankets were a couple empty tiny ziploc bags, empty of the powder, but each packet decorated with two purple smiley-face stickers.
"He started using drugs once we moved out here…." Samantha said miserably, rubbing her wrists together. “‘scuse me I gotta - i gotta take a shower."
Tim followed Samantha silently, taking in the place she and her brother called their home. He had seen many similar places in Gotham, in mainly abandoned, decayed buildings. It is unbelievable how one can sleep here at night. The appartment is filthy, cramped, unhygenic, unpleasant. Tim quirks an eyebrow at the slumbering teen, not spotting any of the drugs near his snoring body and therefore not questioning his identity. He steps forward and confiscates the familiar bags, scowling at their empty state.
"DId he use it on a regular basis? How much a week?" Tim asks turning back to the girl when mentioning a shower to clean her from the odd mixture glued to her clothing and hair. The mixture of blood and oil hadn’t gone unnoticed to Tim, but he didn’t want to remind her she was covered with her brother’s blood. As he nods at her and tells her he will wait for her here, he prepares to use a sterile double-tipped cotton swab to collect some of the goo for analyzes.
"I doubt you are in any danger of changing since you didn’t come in direct contact with the drugs, but we don’t know what made your brother transform yet, so I am going to take a sample, alright?" he explains to her as he shows the cotton swab.
While Samantha is in the shower, Tim hears Kyle’s voice coming through his comms.
"Red Robin, I got Samuel to S.T.A.R. Labs, they’re uh, well. They took him in to operate on. They were…pretty…interested in his case.” Kyle’s voice came through a little tense and neutral. ”I’ll stay here, see what the verdict is. You doing okay?”
Samantha emerges from the bathroom in a giant baggy sweater and yoga pants, toweling her hair. She still looks like she’s in shock, but much more calm than before. ”He…used drugs for a while. Only socially…” she justifies, as if that made it better. ”But Samuel picked up these at a party in - in - in the city. In Wichita. He said…they were the best on the market…” Her lip trembles, and she starts to cry again. She holds out a bundle of her clothes, covered in the dark liquids, including her twin’s blood. “Here. You might need this for…for evidence…”
The sleeping boy stirs, stares at Samantha with a pleasant (if slightly high) greeting smile, and then stares at Red Robin. ”Cool…” the guy says, before falling asleep again.
Tim stares at the sleeping teen on the thin mattress while Kyle reports his progress. His eyes narrow at his choice of words. He knows they are interested, alright. And that’s why he doesn’t trust them one bit. “GL, make sure they perform the surgery and do nothing else. Who knows what they’ll do with Samuel’s dna or other tissue,” he warns his companion suspiciously.
"I’m fine, the girl is obviously shaken. Her name is Samantha. I’m at the appartment she shares with her brother; it looks trashed, probably caused by Samuel’s transformation. There are three bags of Double Smile. The drugs is gone, but I’m confiscating them, as well as samples from Samantha’s clothing to analyze at the Watch Tower," the says kneeling down to take the bags and eye the snoring teenager again, wondering if the boy took some of the drugs as well. He thinks of taking some of his blood when the girl re-appears.
He listens carefully, files important information in his memory as she speaks. “Thank you,” he says taking the clothing from her, offering her a kind smile. She’s still lightly trembling, the poor girl. “Do you know who this person was, giving them to your brother at that party?”
The interruption of the sleeping boy causes Tim to bristle and he is suddenly overcome with an urge to yank him off his lazy ass and out of the appartment unless the guy makes himself useful and give him a blood sample. Inhaling and exhaling slowly, he lets the anger pass. “Stay away from drugs and people who use it. There are dangerous types on the market and they are anything but good,” he warns Samantha.
"Already on it, Red," Kyle responds, although he has that same warm tone he’d used before, that pleased, easy tone. "I’m keeping a close eye on them, Green Lantern’s a name that’s got clout." He listens to Tim’s report, making a small ‘hm’ noise.
"Okay. All of what you’re saying needs to be reported to Gren Arrow, he’s taking point on this case. Let - let Samantha know her twin’s in good hands and they’ll…" Kyle takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly. "Tell her they’ll do everything they can to keep him alive."
Samantha shakes her head to Tim’s question. ”You think I used to go to those stupid parties? I don’t know who gave them to him, I’m sorry.” She shakes her head, wiping back tears that were starting to be more angry and scared.
”I should’ve kept a better eye on him, I should’ve - I should’ve stopped him from taking all those stupid—” She takes a couple steps towards Tim, her tears pouring more freely now as she pushes her face against Tim’s caped shoulder for comfort.
Tim closes his eyes momentarily, concentrating on Kyle’s voice and how the tone changes from the kind, confident man he knows to an uncertain undertone that causes him to feel mildly nauseous. “I’ll write GA a full report on our findings asap. I want to ask some more questions and make sure Samantha won’t be alone,” he tells Kyle softly, taking deep breaths to calm his body and mind.
He turns to the girl and recognizes a certain pattern unfolding before his eyes when Samantha becomes angry at herself rather than the dealer who gave her brother the drugs, or the boy who accepted them. If she looked after Samuel more carefully, had been more aware of the drug abuse - the self-blame feels too familiar. Tim releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding when the girl cries into his shoulder.
Yes, this entire situation could have been prevented seeing as you show awareness of his regular drug abuse and allowed him to empty three bags in this small appartment. How could you not have stopped him? They are the kind of words he scolds himself with all the time. Tim places a hand on her back, pressing harder than he initially intents. “You.. did all you could do,” he says, the words sounding uncertain even to his own ears. Tim shakes his head. “But sometimes you aren’t the right person to help them. The scientists at S.T.A.R. Labs are doing everything at the moment to save your brother.” Tim lowers his head and his voice becomes a mumble. “If they can’t help him, no one can at this point, and I want you to promise me you won’t blame this on yourself.” Wow, what a serious case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Samantha nods against Tim, not really listening to his exact words through her haze of despair, but obviously taking comfort in the fact that he’s talking to her in a soothing tone. He pulls back and wipes her tears with her palm, smiling at Tim.
"You’re a good superhero, Red Robin. I’m glad you saved me…" she says and then blushes. To cover it, she turns and kicks lightly at the foot of the sleeping young man. "Jeb, wake up! We’re gonna clean this place up for when Samuel comes back, make it nice for him and clean and nice." She turns and explains to Tim. "He’s our cousin. He’s our…only family…"
Jeb startles and then stands up, looking more awake now. He eyes Tim. ”Okay, you had your fun saving the damsel in distress. On your way now. This is our home.” He says as if trying to shoo away a dog. Jeb scrubs at his blond stubble. ”And uh, thanks fer your help an’ all. But we can handle it from here on in.”
Behind him, Samantha stands passively, lost in her own sad thoughts. She gives Tim one last, grateful smile, her hands clasped demurely in front of her.
Tim stands back, hardly praising himself as much as Samantha does. He wants to remind her of his companion, Green Lantern, who actually saved her from her brother’s stomach. When the cousin of the twins stirs and comes to live however, taking on an attitude that’s hardly friendly or polite, Tim’s demeanor hardens. It doesn’t feel right leaving her with him and the possibility of the cousin bringing in a new batch of drugs. Samantha doesn’t deserve to suffer even more because of someone’s addiction.
“Listen carefully,” he starts, stepping forward into Jeb’s personal space. His eyes narrow dangerously. “The drugs Samuel used is called Double Smile. You can recognize it by the two purple stickers with smileys on the bags. Don’t buy it again. Don’t use it or any other drug, you hear me? I’m keeping my eyes on you, so If you do, I am going after you,” he warns the scruffy teenager, letting him know bettering his life means no potential fights with a hero and letting Samantha know he will check on her to make sure she’s alright.
Red Robin steps back, holding Jeb’s gaze shortly and nodding at Samantha. “As soon as the scientists have news on Samuel, you’ll hear from me,” he says before leaving the trashed apartment. When outside the building, nearing his motorcycle, he contacts Kyle with a sigh. “GL, any news on Samuel? I’m off to the Watch Tower to run some tests on the bags and the clothing Samantha gave me. I’ll fill you in on my way there if you’re free.”
Jeb the cousin looks a little frightened - and who wouldn’t with a cowled, angry person stepping up close into his personal space. Even though Jeb was a good few inches taller than Tim, he still stumbled back a couple steps, cowed. But his fright turns into something darker and more defensive when Tim offers to keep in touch with Samantha.
She barely makes a squeak when Jeb leans forward again, shoving Tim against his shoulder.
"Hey freak - I got rights! You’re not the boss of me, just - b-b-because you wear tights and a mask! You’re the real threat for us normals! Just because we now got a way to fight back, get some power back using a drug - how’s that any different from you with your aliens and gamma rays and freak powers, huh? That’s me thinkin’ right. Me and Sammy, we were thinking right.” Jeb was getting himself worked up, ignoring Samantha’s pleas of ‘Jeb no, Red Robin saved us, he’s one of the GOOD ones!’, hopping around as if he is spoiling for a boxing match.
He raises his fist up, pumping it in the air like a protester. ”Rights not tights! Rights not tights!”
As the wiry, slight stale-smelling teen chants, Green Lantern’s voice crackles through Tim’s comms. ”Nothing yet, Red Robin. I’ll keep you posted when I got some news. Heading up to the Tower’s a good idea - I’ll meet you there in a few.”
"I might need a bit longer. Have some preaching to do," Tim tells Kyle when Jeb starts his tough act. Great, the guy is not only a druggie, but also a complete moron. Tim doesn’t resist the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose as Jeb chants and hops around him antagonizing a fight he will definitely lose without Tim even trying.
"Perhaps you didn’t see because you were wasting your life sleeping of a drugs haze, but your cousin Samuel - also a normal person, like you - transformed into a mutant because he used Double Smile drugs and endangered Samantha as well as everyone he crossed while on his way to the little house on the prairie. Samuel felt misserable after he changed, he asked me to kill him when Green Lantern and I rescued his sister from his stomach - meaning he ate her somehow. Chances are the drugs are killing him right now, but my companion in green tights is with him trying to prevent that. Do you want to experience that so badly, Jeb?”
Tim balls his fists as he tells Jeb’s what’s what, tries to get the facts through the teen’s thick skull and he’s close to shoving him the way he did, but violence is the last thing nervously pleading Samantha needs.
Jeb retreats into sulky glaring and not much else. It’s clear that Tim’s speech didn’t quite get through to him, possibly because he didn’t see what had become of Samuel, only that the twin had mutated into that robotic conglomeration of flesh and metal.
But he has enough smarts to realize that Samantha is upset; and although perhaps a part of him knows the caped hero speaks logic, his mind is still full of propaganda as he twists Red Robin’s words in his mind. He points at Tim accusingly. ”You guys sent him to the hospital,” he mutters. ”This’s your fault. We were jus’ tryina fight back. You hurt him…” But then he backs down and says no more.
Samantha takes this moment to rush to Tim. ”I’m so sorry,” she apologizes for Jeb. ”I’m gonna pray for you, and my brother. I know he’s gonna be okay.” She nods, her eyes bright as she holds onto Tim’s arm with both her hands.
At that moment, Green Lantern starts talking on Tim’s comms. ”Okay - the work on Samuel is more extensive than they originally thought. They - they offered to put Samantha up in a hotel in Keystone, so she can visit her brother and get checked out by the doctors here.” A pause. ”It’s all we can do for now, Red.”
No point in wasting any more air and energy on the guy. Tim grits his teeth for a moment, wanting to calm down and leave in peace least Samantha has to go through another argument. The girl holding on to his arms apologizes in Jeb’s place. Unnecessary, but kind. He offers her a small smile that hopefully shows her things will actually be okay.
Kyle’s news is both positive and negative. More extensive means smaller chance of survival, but they offered the girl a decent place to stay while she gets examined too, for her own safety.
"S.T.A.R. Labs has a place for you to stay while your brother is in their care. They also offered to check if you’re completely unharmed," he tells Samantha. His eyes shift to Jeb. Fudge. Tim reaches up to his communicator. "Best we can do, GL. Think they have room for one more? I got a relative of the twins who might have possibly been taking the drugs as well. He should be tested," he asks Kyle with a lowered voice, not wanting Jeb to hear their conversation. He will force the teen into S.T.A.R. Labs if necessary.
"Uh…lemme get back to you on that. Hold fast," Kyle blips off for a moment, just as Samantha makes a small jump of excitement and runs behind a curtained-off area that looks to be where she sleeps. She grabs a knapsack, stuffing some clothes into it. "Oh my gosh, I want to be with my brother, yes please! S.T.A.R Labs in Keystone City? That one? I’ve never been to Keystone before!"
Jeb does indeed look pissed off and on the verge of protesting again; clearly he wants to come along as well. His reasoning, Tim discerns from his muttering, is that it’s to keep an eye on Samantha and make sure those big-shot cityfolk don’t take advantage of her or use her to create more ‘caped vigilante freaks’.
Kyle returns on the comms. “Sure, we’ll bring down the whole Ingalls family,” Kyle says, referring to the family name of the characters from the Little House on the Prairie tv show. There’s a pause and then he continues, ”Sorry, that was in bad form. But yeah - S.T.A.R. would love to check out the relative too. Maybe find out why the drug affected Samual and not him. I’ll be there in ten minutes to pick up the lot of you. Lantern out.”
"We can laugh about that bad-timing joke later. And thanks, see you then," Tim replies with a small smile. The reference was actually pretty sharp and funny. The corners of his mouth dipped once again at the sight of Jeb’s flared nostrils, looking like a bull ready to go at him. Better not show him his back, Tim reasons whlie turning towards him.
"Don’t worry, I have arranged for the both of you to visit Samuel. Green Lantern and I won’t force you to do anything." But S.T.A.R Labs might. Let’s leave out the part of being examined. He can’t imagine the druggie jumping in joy for that to happen. Samantha should be clean, but one can’t be certain without proper testing. The girl looks thrilled to see her brother, urging Jeb on to pack whatever few possessions he owns and has to bring along.
While they prepare Jeb to come along, Tim turns to the shattered window in time to greet Kyle. “Watch the druggie, Jeb, he’s rebellious and thinks of us a freaks in tights,” he says as a greeting.