Snuffed (Equinox)

"This might make it a bit easier." Dick said, pulling out the uplink to his mainframe. It wasn't the bat-computer but it was powerful enough to tear through the digital records of all the police reports across the city. While the computer ran the scan, he started hacking the state and federal bureaus and in case the B.M.P.D. database fell short. He looked up from the little device when Rose asked what was done to Dana. He seriously considered not telling her, but he figured it wouldn't help at this point.

"She drugged him. Tox screen showed about sixty drugs in his system. Many of them didn't go well together. But as far as I've been able to tell, the majority of them were combined into a cocktail with a base of Sodium Pentothal. Basically, it was truth serum. But this mix was way more advanced than most anything I've ever seen like it. Under the influence of that stuff, you'd be a complete slave to any demand or suggestion made by anyone else. On top of that, he had an unclotted needle puncture to a major artery. He should be dead, frankly. But in our line of work, we can all say that a couple of times a week.

"The doctors wanted to put him on dialysis, but when they went to set it up, they found the drugs in his system had mysteriously dispersed. They think it was just the nature of the cocktail. In reality, it was something Wayne Labs invented a few years ago that I secretly gave him combined with a few minutes wearing his ring. Seems that ring can accelerate any chemical process at will. That stuff should have taken hours to work, not moments. Still... at least he isn't running around Bludhaven with a pharmacy running through his veins."

When Rose asked what the plan was, Dick found he didn't really have an answer for her. Without some place to start, they were dead in the water. The alley and hotel room, while interesting sources of information, didn't give them much to go on.

"Callie was careful to cover her tracks." Dick said. "The hotel room was spotless. Like I said, all we got were prints that didn't turn up matches and a single strand of hair containing useless DNA. Everything else either belonged to Dana or gives us nothing to go on. The medical equipment Callie used seemed promising at first glance, but it turns out the stuff was stolen from a lab in southern Japan months ago. The police in the region have no leads."

His uplink beeped and he looked down. On the screen was displayed a foggy sort of image of someone crossing the street. The data read-out identified it as a security recording still-shot from a camera in City Centre, Jayne Street at Covington. A bar. Facial recognition identified it as Callie based off of a reference image from her B.M.P.D. file.

"Got a hit on Callie!" Dick said, walking over and grabbing his hat. "The Dark Street Pub, Jayne at Covington. She was there three hours ago. Let's make a stop at my place and then go see what dirt we can turn up. I need to get changed into something more... appropriate."

Rose nodded and cracked her knuckles, dispite nearly being poisoned, she desperately wanted to mess up Callie's pretty little face. Grabbing what was left of her things, she stormed out of the room, expecting Dick to follow.


Once again in one of nightwing's many hide aways, Rose stood in the middle of the semi lit room, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently. Her arms were crossed as she stared into space, lost in her own memories...

"Nick called me ugly again!" Little Rose muttered, as Callie sat behind her braiding the younger girl's auburn hair. Callie sighed and looked over to see where the boy who would later be known as Hood stood, talking to another little boy who just seemed to be nodding.

"Just ignore him Rosie, he is just cranky because he was sent to his room this morning." Callie said with a smile, stcking her tounge out in concentration as she tied up the long plait.

"But what if he is right?" Little Rose muttered, picking up a stick and using it to make patterns in the dirt. Callie stood up and brushed herself off, shaking her head. "He's WRONG, think nothing more of it!" She said with a silly smile.

"That's easy for you to say, you are pretty..."

"Shush Rosie posie! Don't believe anything stupid Nick says. One day someone will tell you that you are pretty and you will have to believe them." She said, her eyes lingering over to the quiet boy talking to Nick.

Rose grinned, pulling a face. "I knew it! You like 'im! You like Kai!"

Callie blushed, "NO! I don't! Stop it Rosie!" She hissed, before poking her tounge out at Rose....

Rose blinked and snapped out of it, no point taking a stroll down memory lane. Callie and Hood are different people now, and nothing could change that...

"Sorry for the delay." Dick said, appearing around a corner. This was one of the more labyrinthine hide-outs. Like many of the ones he now controlled, this place used to be one of Riddler's sick games of logic. Or at least part of it. Dick had blocked off about ninety percent of the maze when he moved in. This was just the entryway, but it served his purposes. "I was checking up on something with the computer. Come on, we'll move while we talk."

He walked past Rose and through the doors into the maintenance passage beyond, the hall which served as the accessway for the hideout. The city's maintenance personnel had abandoned this particular area years ago for fear of the criminal elements in the area. It was a pretty perfect place for an auxiliary lair. It was a short walk to the stairway leading up to street level.

"I've been trying to figure out what the deal was with the alley behind the hotel. It didn't make a lot of sense and then I remembered an notation on one of the Hood files from a few years ago. He wears a size twelve men's shoe. I found footprints in the alley. Size twelve. Over here."

As they reached street level, he gestured to Rose to follow him down a small alleyway near the exit they'd emerged from. It dead-ended with a sheet metal security gate.

"I don't think the guy who took the shot at you was Hood. I think he was in the alley. I think he got Callie to trick Dana into getting you to walk into a trap where Hood would capture you, not kill you."

He pushed the center of a piece of graffiti plastered next to the gate and a panel flipped open revealing a number pad. Dick punched in a code. Next moment, the gate slid upward, opening the alley into a small garage. The strip-lighting flickered on revealing a black motorcycle. It had the distinct air of 'custom crime-fighting vehicle' about it. It certainly didn't roll off an assembly line anywhere.

"I ran a ballistics comparison on the dart and it came back with an eleven point seven millimeter calibration. As far as I know, there's only one man in the world who uses a weapon that fires that caliber -- Deadshot. We're dealing with two parties here. Hood... and whoever has enough money to hire the world's most expensive assassin to do a job while violating his modus operandi. I imagine it would cost a pretty penny. It also explains the poison. He's been known to use a similar compound on many jobs. Although this is the first time he's ever used a dart to deliver it. Usually, he just coats his normal ammunition in it."

Rose followed Dick as lead her up the stairs untill they appeared in a rather normal looking ally, with trash in the corners and and tagging on the brick walls.

Rose raised an eyebrow as he explained his theory that hood didn't actually take the shot at her. "So you are suggesting that someone was fo-" Rose didn't finish her sentance. At this point of time, she was staring in a trance at the sleek black seemingly custom made bike.

the auburn haired girl blinked and snapped out of it as nightwing started talking again, returning her focus to the situation at hand. If this guy 'deadshot' cost so much for his services, that was probably why she had never heard of him before. Big time assassins don't go blabbing their names around willy nilly.

"So, this deadshot guy must have been hired by the company the War Raven kind of work for, the one Jimmy Richter owns. I guess they would have been tired of me and Dana messing around with their little escapades." She said, tapping her chin.

"At the momment, I don't really care who shot a dart at my neck," She said sharply, crossing her arms. "That can wait. If you said Dana was going to try go after Hood alone, Tracking him down and stopping him from getting himself badly hurt or more likely killed." Her voice shook as she forced out the word 'killed' trying not to think of the worse case scenario.

It just dawned on her that her best friend might already be bleeding out in a gutter somewhere.

Or worse, already dead.

Rose shuddered and looked up at Dick, blinking back tears she was dtermind not to shed.

"Lets just get to that stupid bar already?"

"Whoa, whoa!" Dick said, holding up a hand to stop her. "Now isn't the time to start rushing. We need to move fast but not too fast. Dana is going to have to show us where he is in order to get at Hood. So long as he's missing, he's still on the chase. We need to figure out what's going on here. Otherwise, we're just going to end up walking into the same trap Dana did. It's obvious that Hood knows who's involved here and he's afraid enough of Deadshot's employers to make a run for it the moment they play their hand. Now you and I both know that Hood just doesn't do 'retreat'.

"We can't go after Hood without pissing these people off. If you're right about War Raven's corporate superiors being behind this, then it means they're cleaning house. That does not bode well for us if Hood is terrified of these people, it means they're the worst kinds of evil, alright? Now. We go. We investigate. We remain careful. We're no use to Dana if we're dead."

With that, he turned and mounted up on the bike.

"Now let's go find us an accomplice."

"Well, this just about figures." Dick said, his arms folded as he stood with Rose in the alley across the street from the pub which was currently enveloped in a massive fireball which was sending thick clouds of black smoke into the night sky. The fire department was already on the scene, cleaning up the mess the bomb had left behind. Dick and Rose had to remain in the shadows of the alley to go unnoticed.

"Why would they bomb out a pub, though?" Dick muttered aloud. It didn't make any sense. "Hood and Callie couldn't possibly have gotten anything out of wiping out a bar. There must be something about the place that the cleaners wanted to get rid of. But what?"

Dick started tapping commands into the little uplink of his, sorting through the files in the mainframe for anything that might explain this...

Rose stood in the shadows next to Dick, watching as the fire department scrambled to put out the burning pub. Thick angry smoke spewed out of the raging flames in what seemed like a never ending burst. The more she stared the more frustrated she became.

"Don't ask me, my guess is as good as yours Dick." She muttered, pushing her hair back. Callie wasn't ever one to do something unless it was needed, and she never drew attention to herself. Hood on the other hand, she could picture him doing something like this.

"I don't know, this isn't Callie's style, but Hood would blow up a building to prove a piont. Maybe There was something in there they needed to get rid of in a hurry...?" She said, before rolling her eyes.

Listen to yourself Rose, you are so out of it she thought, turning back to Dick.

"What else do you have? anything? anything at all?"

"In fact, I do." Dick said, looking up. "That place was owned and operated by a man named Calcelmo. He's a well known illegal weapons dealer. I have no doubt that Hood would have been one of his regular customers. I'm willing to bet that's where Callie and Hood got their medical supplies from as well. Calcelmo's been known to traffic in stolen goods of every description so long as it's useful to the underworld."

Dick swung his leg over the bike.

"And he provided one other service to the criminal element." he said, looking over at Rose. "High rent, low profile housing."

Glass and wood crunched under foot as Dick and Rose entered the small apartment. The place looked like a tornado had torn through. The door was blasted clean off its hinges, shattered despite being armored with metal sheets into a million little pieces. Everything was broken. There were signs of a struggle. Dick looked around. This was definitely the place. No Dana. No Callie... This was the fifteenth of these pads they'd checked. It would have been many more hours before they checked it if Dick hadn't picked up a call about it. The sun was risen. They didn't stop.

Examining the evidence, Dick formed an image in his mind of what had happened...

Knock. Knock.

Callie looked around at the door with suspicion. She wasn't expecting anyone. She briefly considered calling Nick. But he'd be angry if she was wasting his time with some random idiot out taking surveys. She walked over and picked up the shotgun leaning in the corner, then walked slowly toward the door. She leaned in and peered through the peep hole. Then the door exploded in a massive burst of green light.

Thrown backward, Callie landed on the couch. Through the haze of dust and debris now filling the place, a long strand of glowing rope shot at her, grabbing her around the middle and throwing her toward the wall. A moment later, a huge plate of glowing metal pinned her against the wall, four giant bolt of similar creation flying forward through the haze, piercing through the plate and into the wall. She couldn't move. As she struggled, a hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck. She found herself looking into a pair of Green Eyes filled with rage. It was like looking into the eyes of a lion.

"Remember me?!" hissed a furious growl.

"How'd you find me?!" Callie said, shocked.

"Your friend, Calcelmo has a big mouth when someone's breaking his fingers!" Dana said. "I didn't think you were this stupid. After the hotel, I expected better security from you than a project and a sawed-off!"

"I'm good with the scripts." Callie stammered. "You're hurting me!"

"What a coincidence!" Dana growled. "You were hurting me! WHERE IS HE?!"

Callie felt Dana's fingers tighten around her neck. Nick had told her that the Lantern would be furious if she let him live. He told her to finish the job. But she hadn't imagined that Dana would be capable of this kind of unbalanced rage.

"I-I don't know!" Callie said desperately.

"BULLSHIT!" Dana roared. "Don't test me, Callie! I am not in the mood for games. Tell me where he is or I start placing bets on whether or not you'll be able to hold out for through more fingers than Calcelmo did!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Callie cried. "Please let me go!"

"RAAGH!" Dana screamed in rage...

"He dragged her out into the hall. Then he must have made some kind of construct to carry her along. He definitely took flight..." Dick explained, wrapping up the walk-through of the events for Rose. "He's succumbed to his rage about what happened to you. The Dana we know would never lose himself like this. I've never seen him cause such devastation..."

He turned and headed back into the apartment, looking around. From what he knew about Callie, he knew she wasn't that careful. She must have left them something to track Hood. There was no reason to believe they weren't both stay there. He pulled out his materials analyzer and started scanning. There was petroleum byproduct residue on the floors and a residual trace of oil-infused steam. It was likely one of them was passing through both regularly in order to track such trace amounts into the place in noticeable volume. The gun was no surprise. It also didn't help. They needed something... definitive.

"Sulfuric ash." Dick muttered, looking at the readout. He'd found a small trace on a fragment of the table, the edge by the looks of it. There was a fair chance it came from either Callie or Hood. "There's only two places in town that you'd be able to get something like this on you. One of them is on the docks, the other's in the outskirts of the city. Both are sulfur storage facilities."

Rose stared at the blown in door and the rest of the destoryed room, finding it very hard to picture Dana doing anything like this. She had rarely ever seen him furious, even then he contained it extremely well. Rose kicked a random piece of broken wood that was littered on the ground. She felt a pang of guilt hit her in the chest, Rose couldn't help but feel reasponable for this even though she knew she shouldn't blame herself.

"I never thought Dana could get so angry," She muttered, her eyes flickering across the broken apartment. "I am finding it hard to picture him doing all this! He is always against violence, Dana is a peaceful guy..." she said, looking up at Dick.

Oh God Dana, what have you gotten yourself into?

At the mention of sulfuric ash, Rose snapped out of her little daze. If she didn't stop Dana soon, the worry was going to eat her alive.

"Two possiable locations. Either one sounds like a place Hood would hang around in," She said, tapping her chin. "We could spilt up, but I don't like the idea of running into Hood alone so we should check out the closest storage building."

"Dick...I really can not put into words how worried I am. This just isn't Dana. Vengance has never been something he would aim for! there has to be something more to...I..." Rose didn't continue. It was like the words had faded away. She simply took a breath to calm down and stormed out the door again.

"No man is all that peaceful." Dick muttered, crouching and sifting through the wreckage, still sorting out what happened. "It's in human nature to solve conflict through violence. We may choose to act peacefully, but all we end up doing is locking it up inside. It's always the ones who never let it out that end up doing the most damage..."

He managed to put most of what happened here together and explained it all to Rose. Eventually, he returned to the room and started scanning, running across the sulfuric ash and their latest running theory on where Dana was headed. Rose's comments on their new search zones didn't require much of a response, but when admitted her concerns, it made Dick look around at her with raised brow.

"There is something more." Dick said slowly. "And it's important that you understand this. Dana wants to kill Hood. You can put money on that. As far as he knows, Hood killed you and he's taking his revenge. I don't think he cares if he dies and I don't think he cares what gets in his way. We're going to see more of this side of Dana." he gestured around at the debris. "Just remember that this. This is in all of us. What's important isn't that he's capable of it. What's important is that he chose when to let that part of him loose. And it took your death in his mind to do it. That's no small measure of self-control. I doubt any of us would be able to resist that temptation if someone we l--..." he cleared his throat, shaking his head. "If someone we cared about was all of a sudden just... gone. Even the Batman couldn't resist it."

Rose sighed, replaying Dick's words in her head.

We're going to see more of this side of Dana.

a familiar smug grin flashed across Rose's mind for a split second, a smile she was fond of.

"You make human beings sound so weak willed Dick..." She looked up, "I don't want Dana to be labeled a murderer, and I know Hood will take advantage of Dana's current state, when you are angry, you don't think straight. You are controlled by instinct." She took a shaky breath.

"I know...that...if the tables were turned...I would be doing what Dana is. God, a have almost done it a few times, but he was there for me, you know?" Realising she was rambling, Rose ceased speaking. After long pause, Rose spoke up again. "I..understand though, I do. That is why we need to get to him."

Rose's imagination was running wild, pictures of Dana with his hands coated in someone else's crimson, ink like blood. Her heart heaved, so much that it almost hurt. More and more images of him flooded her mind, some of him on the ground in a crumpled heap. Motionless.

Not going to happen. Not on my LIFE.

"It takes a special sort to resist one's nature, Rose." Dick said, looking around at her. "In that way, many humans are weak-willed. In time, they develop the wisdom to know better, but... some never do. But Dana made a choice long ago not to kill. We both know the story. I don't believe for a moment that even this kind of rage can drive him to break that oath. He may think he can do it, but in the end he won't be able to. I know. I've been there.

"I'm not worried about Dana becoming a murderer. I'm worried about Dana becoming a corpse. Getting to him quickly is important. But we can't make any mistakes."

Closing the scanner, Dick looked around. He needed to use his eyes. He was missing something and he knew it. Callie and Hood may have been careful, but in this mess there was no way Callie didn't leave behind some clue more solid than a sulfuric trace. Despite the fact that there were only two places in town you could pick it up didn't mean that it wasn't just tracked on the way to some other location. He needed to find something more. Something...

"A lot like a pressure release valve..." Dick muttered. He had spotted a small piece of metal sticking out from under a pile of rubble and, stooping to pull it free, realized that what he was holding was a pressure release valve. A very unusual one. Custom. "I've never seen a valve quite like this one before. Why the hell is it here?"

He looked around. Nothing like this should be anywhere outside of an industrial district. He pulled out his scanner and passed it over the piece of equipment. The mainframe almost immediately returned with a registry for the piece.

"This valve..." Dick muttered, turning toward Rose. "It was commissioned forty-three years ago by a company by the name of D.L.S. Chemicals. They went out of business ten years later. Their facility is a block away from the sulfuric processing plant uptown. The facility was taken over by the city after D.L.S. went out of business and is maintained by a skeleton crew of city employees. It's a huge facility, a steel jungle. It would be just the sort of place Hood could hide a base of operations. There would be tons of auxiliary areas for him to stash equipment..."

Rose was quiet as Dick scanned the what seemed to be a random peice of metal. As he muttered an explaination for the hunk of junk, Rose crossed her arms and nodded. "It sounds like Hood and Callie's type of place. We should check it out!" She said, voice rising slightly.

Rose turned and kicks a large piece of what used to be a coffee table out of her way and walked towards the door, she was growing to anxious to stay in the reakage to talk. Just stepping out of the blasted doorframe, Rose looked over her shoulder.

"You're leading the way Wings, you've got the equipment." She muttered.


Kai jumped up abruptly once reading the message on his communicator, the papers and files that had been on his lap slumped onto the ground.

Noticing the telepath's alarm, James stared at him with one eyebrow raised.

"What? What is it?" James inquired, pausing his video game, he had gotten a pretty bad feeling he wasn't in for good news...

Kai walked over and thrusted the commincator with the message into the younger teen's face, the boy's eyes widening to the size of bus wheels as he read.

"No...way...not good....not at all."

The engine of Dick's motorcycle spun down as he deactivated it, tucking the high-tech key, a small coin with a complex glowing pattern, into a pocket designed just for this item on his shoulder. He dismounted with Rose and looked around. They were standing in the middle of what was the D.L.S. Chemicals facility. It looked wholly abandoned except for the machinery, which seemed to still be in good working order. Otherwise it was quiet and ominous. A little too much so.

"This way." he said, indicating a door which seemed to lead into the facility. He hadn't stepped three feet when a high-pitched sound filled the air. A moment later, what appeared to be a rocket hit the ground next to him. It split open and a holographic face was projected. It was Lucius Fox.

"Mr. Grayson." Fox said. "Sorry for the theatrics, but I was able to construct that device you asked for and I wanted to test WayneTech's new delivery system for aide packages. It seems to work fine."

"It seems like it." Dick said. "What do you have for me?"

"There's a box inside the rocket. Inside is a chip that should reprogram your scanner that I gave you to detect the energy from a Green Lantern's ring." Fox explained. "However, on such short notice, I haven't been able to work out the kinks in the system. I'm afraid it will only give you a general idea of the Lantern's location."

"How general?"

"Say... fifty yards or so." Fox said. "And as far as I've been able to determine, it'll only be able to detect high yields of the energy signature. Your friend will have to be using the ring in order for it to detect him. I'm sorry I wasn't able to sort out a more helpful solution."

"Not at all." Dick said as he loaded the chip into his scanner. "Every bit helps."

Lucius nodded and then the hologram vanished. The chip finished reprogramming his scanner quickly and he discarded the little chip, turning to Rose. He tapped a command in and waited. The scan was somewhat slow. At first he wasn't sure it was working. But then they got a blip. Dana was already here. The zone indication fluctuated oddly. Then it ceased.

"This way..." Dick said, nodding toward the looming shadows of the main facility in the very heart of the complex, the towering stacks burning off gases in the orange glow of the setting sun.

It took some time to find an access point that wasn't sealed beyond Dick's ability to break in. And then when they found such an access, it turned out to be altogether unlocked. They found themselves standing in what seemed to be the commons of the facility. The hall they stood in seemed to lead off mostly into cafeterias and break rooms and a few offices. Before long, they were standing at a four way intersection, a round room with a likely shaped reception and security desk in its center.

Dick moved around toward the controls. They could use the cameras to track Dana. However, he found them inoperable. Though that was the last thing on his mind as what he found sitting behind the ring-like desk, tied and laying on the ground, was none other than Callie. He looked up at Rose.

"You might want to see this." he said. Callie huffed indignantly when she laid eyes on Rose...

Rose followed Dick hesitantly down the ghostly halls, eyes flickering around the place. Only their shadows seemed to be following them.

So far.

Rose had to admit now that they have picked a trace of Dana up on the scanner Mr. Fox 'delivered' to them, she had felt surprizingly even more worried. What if they got to him to late? what if he was already dead? what if he--

"You might want to see this." Dick said. Rose's heart jumped and she hurried to him, peaking over his shoulder in hope to see Dana all in one piece.

But instead she looked into the eyes of one of the people that had caused this big mess.

"Callie!" Rose hissed, trying not to feel any guilt as she stared down at the woman on the ground. Her hands were bound together with a rough, rusted metal chain. Her wrists were badly grazed from her chains rubbing against her skin. Her ankles were the same. She had a few cuts and grazes, not to mention a large angry bruise around her neck.

Did Dana...?

Dispite the girls obvious pain, she managed to glare at Rose. "Your boyfriend is crazy...y-you know that Rosie?" She choked.

The light manipulator's face hardened. "That's rich coming from you Callie. Where are they?" She growled, not bothering to check her wounds. In Rose's eyes, Callie was fine the way she was at this piont of time.

"Whattya mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean! Where is Hood and Dana?"

"I don't--"

"Where. Is. DANA." She hissed, her voice coated in venom. Rose KNEW she knew! She knew what Hood and done to him, she could see it in the gastly blonde's eyes. Her worry and frustration was bubbling within herself, she bearly could contain it.

"Where IS HE!"

"Oh baby, is someone in love?"

"Now isn't the time to be testing us, Callie." Dick said flatly. "You know where Hood is. That means you know where Dana is. You don't know him that well, but the Lantern that did this to you. He's a pacifist under most circumstances. Whatever he did to you to get you to give him Hood's location, I can promise you I'll have no problem whatsoever revisiting that on you. I have no aversion to violence."

Okay. So it was a bluff. But it was a good one. Callie didn't seem to know what to think about this threat. However, she scooted around, sitting up.

"I'll tell you because I think Nick would want me to." Callie said. "Level six, west. R-Branch. You'll find them there."

"Stick around. We'll have words later." Dick said. And with that, he turned. It took them all of twenty minutes to get to the place Callie indicated. They found themselves in a steamy walkway. It seemed to head off forever in either direction.

"Well, the man who designed this place deserves a swift kick." Dick muttered. He was just starting to think that flipping a coin would be their best option when a god-awful scream filled the air. It was a roar of agony uttered by an all-too-familiar voice. It emanated from the left. "Let's go!"

Running full-tilt down the passage through clouds of steam, Dick and Rose found their way out onto a catwalk. They found none other than Hood standing there, stepping away from a railing. He looked around at them as they emerged through the steam.

"Oh, I've heard of a two-fer, but a three-fer?" he said, laughing, squaring up on them. "The lamp, the rose, and the bird. I'm going to be doing a service for the criminals of Bludhaven today!"

Dick stuck out an arm to stop Rose as she made at Hood.

"Rose." Dick said, keeping his eyes fixed on Hood. "Find Dana. Find him now. He's dying."

Before she could ask how he knew, he pointed at the blood coating the railing next to Hood.

"Mm. Good eyes."

"You'll find it isn't my only impressive trait." Dick said. "I'll deal with the scum. You find Dana."

And with that, he launched himself at Hood. It was clear he wasn't used to dealing with people who could match his speed because Dick was able to land a solid hit right off the bat. It forced Hood through the steam at the far end of the catwalk. Dick gave Rose one quick look, then darted through the steam after Hood...

((OOC: Sorry for the god-modding. Kind of just wanted to type that all out.))

All words seemed to vanish as Rose eyed the blood, The hissing of the steam escaping the pipes and the thumping of Dick's footsteps fading away dissapeared. Her heart was racing as her head twisted towards the ladder.

She jumped the railing and grabbed onto the ladder, moving as quickly as she could down into the cold dark abyss. Although she was moving as fast as she could, the black seemed to go on forever.

She needed to get to him, but she felt like it was already to late.

"Screw this, I'm coming Dana." She said out loud to herself, before grabbing the slides of the old metal ladder and slidding down it fireman style. Even though she was wearing gloves, the palms of her hands grew hot and it hurt like hell.

finally her feet hit the concrete ground with a thud that echoed up the pit, boucing off the walls. Quickly forming a glowing orb above her head, the light making the bottom visable.

Turning around her eyes widened and she collasped to her knees next to a bloody body crumpled up in a heap.

"Dana!"

She quickly checked his pulse pressing her delicate fingers to his neck, the other hand gently covering the open wound.

"Oh god Dana..." She whispered, mainly trying to keep herself calm, she doubted she had ever been this scared in whole.

More scared then she was of Hood.

She might lose him.

"It's okay, I'm going to get you out...okay? I'm not leaving..." She muttered, And without thinking she pressed a tender kiss on his forehead.

Why...did I just do that?

She shook her head and began thinking of a way to get them both out of here...alive.

"The infamous Hood." Dick said. "I can't say I'm surprised at your choice of residences."

"The notorious Nightwing." Hood said. "And to think I was almost bored tonight."

"What did you do to Dana?" Dick asked, walking toward him in the narrow passage.

"I gutted him like a fish!" Hood declared with a laugh, holding the bloody knife up. "It was fun, frankly. And as much as I'm enjoying this little conversation, I have a schedule to keep and lives to ruin. Namely those of your two friends. So. I think I'm going to make this quick."

"You'd probably do well to think again." Dick said flatly. Hood lunged at him, thrusting with knife. By the time his momentum has stopped, Dick had swatted sharply dozens of times up the man's arm with his batons. It hung there limply. He gave Hood a sharp tap to the nose for good measure. It sent a stream of blood from his nostrils as the familiar snap of a breaking nose filled the air. Dick grabbed the man by the back of the head and slammed his face into a pipe twice before throwing him onto the ground, the grates rattling as he landed.

"Frankly, I thought you'd be more of a challenge, Hood." Dick said, approaching. "But you aren't half as good or fast as you think you are. Your form is sloppy and your hand-eye coordination leaves a serious something to be desired."

"You just gunna insult me the whole time?" Hood looked over his shoulder ad Dick. Then he struck out with one foot at the valve coming off of one of the pipes and the whole corridor filled with steam. By the time it cleared, Hood had vanished.

"You can't hide that way, Hood. I can track you!"

"Well, then, by all means! Try."

Dana fell through darkness. He landed harshly, his back slamming on cold cement. His arms and legs followed. He didn't even have the strength to scream out in pain. Didn't have the time before his head landed and all went dark.

Figures swam around him like wisps of smoke. They teased him, jeered. They called names at him, tortured his thoughts with his deepest fears. They all glowed different colors. Red. Yellow. Green. Blue. Wisps of blackness licked at his feet where he stood, naked and alone, his deep wounds letting crimson blood flow down his leg where the black swallowed it gratefully as though it were a fine wine. He could feel how broken he was. He felt cold. Weak. Hopeless.

"You are!" hissed a voice. Slowly, he turned, hugging himself, his entire body degenerated to an emaciated wreck of its former self. There, he saw a glowing green form. It was him as he was, his body undiminished and unscathed, enveloped in the green uniform of the Corps. A cruel look twisting his face.

"Y-you!" Dana said timidly as his more powerful self stared down at him, his great light diminishing the darkness around him.

"Yes, me!" said the other. "Look at you! Pathetic. That you and I are the same being is a crime against perfection."

"We aren't perfect!" Dana said.

"All thanks to you!" Other barked. "Look at me! I am your power, your greatness! You wish to be a pacifist, yet you cultivate a warrior! Then you deny him his wars. This flesh! It is a crime to diminish it with your weak convictions. Why have power if you're terrified to use it?!"

"For the protection of others." Dana said.

"You may be Will." Other said. "But I am Power. You cannot defeat me with a thought! You gave in to me when that bitch was at our mercy, but you held back when it mattered! And for that, you deserve this!"

Power gestured at Will's frail body, his wounds and bruises. His lips curled into a cruel smile.

"And that girl! What a vacuous weakling!" Power said, his face wrinkling with disgust. "The idea that you wanted to mix our blood with hers, our purpose with hers! Ridiculous. She is a lesser thing. You trained our body to be perfect. You perfected our power. You attracted the ring. Yet you are foolish enough to destroy all that with her?! Truly pathetic."

"All you exist for is destruction, don't you?" Will said. Though he didn't notice it, warmth was returning to him. His wounds were closing. His bruises were vanishing. His body was slowly becoming a mirror of Power's. "You don't care about anything but your own glorification! You came here thinking you were going to deal the finishing blow to me! You came here trying to overpower me and claim a victory I've been denying you for years! I won't allow it!"

All around him dissolved and spun inward, absorbing into him. Power cried out in rage as his form disintegrated and became a trail of mist-like energy being absorbed into Will's chest. Will found himself standing in an infinite whiteness as he was clothed in the purest green, flowing robes at first which became the uniform of the Lantern. As his eyes and hair glowed, he began to float off the ground and all became the void of the universe as a being unlike anything he'd ever seen appeared before his eyes. It was foreign yet familiar, a massive beast afloat in the glow of a star. It looked upon him with eyes unseen and he felt its power flow into him.

"Awaken!" he said.

Dana's true eyes snapped open and he found he was floating off the ground, glowing so brightly that even the deepest shadows were bathed in green. Rose was beneath him, looking up. His wounds were gone as was his rage. He felt only purpose and the will to fulfill it...

He rocketed upward over the railing and through the steam toward Hood and Nightwing, who were still battling, though now in a large generator room at the far end of the corridor. His power carried Rose up from the pit and placed her gently on the catwalk. His incredible glow filled his path as he went. Nightwing and Hood saw him emerge into their fight. He landed between them.

"Impossible!" Hood growled. "You're dead!"

He lunged at Dana with his knife, the Psion's creation. Dana changed. The ring became different. It glowed with a green with bluish hue -- Viridian. His uniform transformed, becoming like robes over the existing green uniform. The symbol changed. Surrounded in an aura of light, Dana held out a hand. Hood stopped where he was, his mouth opening. His arms fell to his side. His weapon was released from his grasp. It clattered to the floor. Slowly, Hood sank to his knees, looking up at Dana.

"When stars and realms and worlds alight," Dana said slowly, standing over Hood. "In the conflict, the wars of evil's blight. I shine out through darkness to end the night. For mine are the words..." he looked around at Nightwing slowly. "Of Viridian's light."

Rose had witnessed a lot.

But that to be the scariest yet...natural thing she had ever seen.

One minute she was about to left Dana up, attempt to contact Blink to teleport them out the dark pit, when all of a sudden, he began to rise.

His broken body began to heal.

and he was glowing. It was the most unearthly light she had ever seen, it was brighter then her own. The darkness of the bit and beyond was filled with blinding beams of the stuff.

Before she knew it, he had surfaced at the very top of the cement tube. She had to shield you eyes for the time being. a few short momments later she felt something tenderly grab her waist, and the invisable force lifted her up to the catwalk.

She really was beyond shock.

And Beyond joyful.

Rose watched with a sence of...pride, as the lantern's uniform changed. Hood dropped his weapon, his face frozen in fear. A smile crept onto her face at the sight of that.

As Dana turned to look at nightwing, she wound herself muttering the last line of what Rose believed to be a new oath.

"Virian's light?" She said out loud, her gaze shifting towards Dana once again. Quickly wiping away a few tears from earlier, destroying any evidence that she had been crying.

Rose...you truely are pathetic.

Standing between Hood and Dick, Dana saw over Nightwing's shoulder Rose emerging from the tunnel into the room they now occupied. She'd followed him. He turned back to Hood.

"I am successor to Solat Fa, master of the peace light -- Viridian." he said, looking down at Hood. Hood's dagger trembled on the ground, then floated up into the air. It came to rest in Dana's open palm. He examined it, his eyes glowing with blue-green fire, albeit an oddly serene form. "You carry the weapons of the Psions. Where did you acquire them, assassin?"

"I won't tell." Hood said. "They would destroy me."

"No, they would not. I would stop them."

"How?"

"Viridian does not bow to the power of the Psion race." Dana said, closing his fingers around the blade. It dissolved into wisps of green-blue energy and vanished as though it had been a construct. "They gave you the tools to destroy the servants of the Guardians of the Universe on this world knowing you would take advantage of that power. But they underestimate the power of peace. Even in their own souls, that power flourishes. I can sense it even from here. Leave this place, Hood. And tell your new masters that Viridian light has returned to the cosmos. What they thought destroyed was not..."

Hood stood up slowly. Dick took a step forward.

"No." Dana said, holding up a hand.

"I'm not letting him leave!" Nightwing argued.

"But I am." Dana said. "The message I have given him is more important than justice. Let him go."

Hood turned and ran. Dick made to follow, but as he stepped into the aura of Dana's viridian light, he slowed and stopped. Dana turned and walked back toward him. He placed a hand on Dick's shoulder and whispered something to him. Then the light faded and he collapsed unconscious. Dick caught him before he hit the floor. He looked up at Rose.

"Help me move him!" he said. He didn't seem as though he was sure of how to react to this, but he made no effort to defy Dana's actions...

Rose scrambled over to help Nightwing with Dana, she carefully placed right arm over her shoulder, taking on half of his weight. At this piont, the only thing that matched her worry was her frustration.

He got away.

we had him, and HE GOT AWAY.

"I can't believe that! He just...it let him...Gah!" She hissed in frustration, carefully moving as quickly as possible. Her hair flung wildly around her face, amking the young woman look very...well...scary.

Dana was like a sack full of rocks, making no movement what so ever. "Is he...is he going to be alright Dick?" Rose managed to say, blowing a peice of her hair out of her face.

"How are we going to get..ah...Dana out of here? Three people on a bike? Please tell me you got a plan for this, because my head feels like it is going to EXPLODE." She hissed again.

"Of course." Dick nodded.

Twenty minutes and a teleportation through a hidden zeta tube to Dick's emergency bunker in Buffalo, New York (technically Bruce Wayne's emergency bunker, but Dick genuinely believed the old bat had forgotten he owned the place) and Dana was laying on a med table being scanned, still unconscious. Dick stared at the readout carefully, making sure what he was seeing was accurate.

"Well, the good news is he's going to be fine." he said, turning to Rose. The bright light shining down on the scanner table made Dana the single brightest thing in the dully lit blue room. "The bad news, and I'm not entirely sure it qualifies as bad news, is that I have no idea how he healed himself that fast. From what he's told me, that ring should have been barely able to deal with such serious injuries. Whatever that Viridian light stuff was, it was something he didn't know about. He would have told one of us about it or used it before now if he knew it existed..."

He thought back to the events in the refinery. He still had no idea why he didn't give chase to Hood. That aura... it just sapped him of the will for revenge or justice. For those few moments, the thought of violence was nothing short of repulsive. And it was all the last thing on his mind. He'd instantaneously taken on a mindset of pure logical thinking. And somehow... letting Hood go just... made sense.

"I gotta tell you, Rose. I've never seen any power like that Viridian light before. It wasn't mind control. It was like... mind... organization. I have no idea how to describe it. My entire outlook changed in an instant."

"I don't care how he healed himself, as long as he is healed." She said bluntly, crossing her arms. "But what ever it was called....that Viridian light had to be the weirdest thing I have ever witnessed. It certainly wasn't Dana talking, that's for sure. It has to have something to do with 312." She said, thinking back to when Dana had explained the ring's origins.

Listening to what said Dick about his experiance with this Viridian light, Rose seemed to dislike it even more. The fact Dana, or the Viridian light...what ever it was called, had let Hood go, still had Rose quite angry.

Even though her temper was still in full swing, she was happy this whole ordeal was over. Dana was with her and Dick, unconious, but other then that he was fine. It was quite strange, seeing Dana like this. He was still and silent, yet he lit the whole room up.

Liturally.

Curious Rose made her hand glow to see which would be brighter. Her gold was overpowered, Dana had one by a landside.

"You can wake up anytime now glowstick..." She found herself muttering quitely under her breath.

"I miss you."