Love Birds

Chapter Twenty One

-Dick's POV-

While other teammates began to come back to the Watchtower after their first missions of the morning, Aqualad gathered us all together. Nightingale stood on the other side of the room away from me, making me glare. Don't get me wrong, I loved that that sinister murderer was staying away from me, but she didn't even bother to look at me so it caused me to think she was planning something. Artemis was next to me and didn't hesitate to jab me in the side with her elbow as soon as she noticed my glares.

"What's up with you and the newbie?" She whispered, trying to look as discrete as possible. It wasn't working and caused a few younger onlookers.

"I don't get why she's on this team. She's killed people."

"Yeah, but so I have I," Artemis sounded a bit hurt so I quickly changed my reason.

"I don't trust her. She thinks she's so much better than all of us." Shooting another glare at the side of Victoria's head, I looked at the computer screens.

"I got that vibe too," Artemis joined me in the small glares. Aqualad stood in front of us as the rest of the Alpha squad joined us. He pulled up news casts from different parts of the world as well as history on the villains being reported.

"Here are the three missions. Zatanna, Kid Flash, Guardian, Wonder girl and Rocket: Gama Squad. I have uploaded the mission to your Com Systems. A massive and unusual earthquake has destroyed Cairo, Egypt. You need to control the damage and find the source of the destruction," Aqualad sent them out. Missions were different since Wally left. No one complained which squad they were assigned on anymore.

"Robin, Bumblebee, Static, Lagoon Boy, and Blue Beetle: Beta Squad. Gorillas from Gorilla City in Africa are attacking nearby tribes. You need to stop them and capture Grodd." The squad gathered gear.

"Arsenal, Beast Boy, Wonder Girl, Miss Martian, Tigris, Superboy, Nightingale, and Nightwing: Alpha Squad. A group of Meta Humans in Hawaii are destroying and killing many civilians. These Metas include Killer Croc, Grundy, Cheetah, and Poison Ivy. Be careful."

"Hey!" Nightingale called out, "Robin should be on this mission along with Beast Boy. We have four strategists right now and we are all full grown adults. You need someone young and small to be able to sneak past the enemies like Robin." The young hero looked over at us while he prepared for his mission.

"Nightingale, we need experienced heros for this dangerous mission."

"They are experienced!"

"Missions are already assigned. Now, get going before more people in Hawaii are killed," Aqualad said, waving us and the Beta Squad off. I smiled in satisfaction at Nightingale's anger. We all zeta tubed to the island and huddled behind a building as one of Ivy's vines reached down the road towards us.

"What's the plan?" Miss Martian asked, looking at all of us.

"Well, we should split up and take them out singly," Donna answered, pulling her lasso from her hip.

"Yeah, we could have the strategists go after Cheetah and Ivy while the strong ones of us take out the huge guys," Tigris agreed and refused to meet Nightingale's gaze, like me.

"Wouldn't it be easier if we alternated?" Smith said.

"Hmm...what do you mean?" Megan asked.

"If we have all the strongs against all the strongs, than the villains will know who to target. If we have one non-powered with one super-powered, the villains won't have a choice of who to face."

"Makes sense to me," Arsenal pulled out his bow, smirking at Nightingale and licking his lips. I rolled my eyes at his obvious attraction to her.

"Good idea," we all stood, "let's get going. I'll be with Tigris, Nightwing, you be with Wonder Girl. Beast Boy and Arsenal, and Nightingale and Superboy." Miss Martian assigned and we all split up. Gar and Roy told us that they would smuggle civilians out of the town and work on getting rid of Ivy and her plants. Megan and Artemis called dibs on Grundy, while Superboy and Nightingale were already handling Cheetah. Unlike everyone else, Nightingale and Connor boldly attacked her instead of going at it secretly.

"Alright, for Croc, I'll sneak up on him from behind and inject him with a tranquilizer. It won't stop him, but it should slow him down," I explained to Donna, "you distract him until I give you a signal."

"Got it. Can you believe that new chick just going in like that?"

I sighed. "Just because they are new, doesn't mean they are smart."

Donna nodded and smashed into Croc. I prepared the needle as she punched him. Everyone was busy fighting their villain to pay attention to me or for any other bad guy to notice me. I saw Artemis get thrown back by Grundy, but quickly caught by Superboy, who threw her back to shoot Grundy in the face and kick him. Nightingale was slicing Cheetah with her two swords and grappling up to buildings that Cheetah was climbing. Arsenal had snuck out the last of the people onto boats as Beast Boy had began fighting Ivy's plants.

I flipped off of a building and was about to stab Croc in the shoulder with the sleeping medicine when his tail smacked me about twenty meters into a building. Donna looked over at me with worry, but went back to her task at hand. She wrapped Croc in her lasso and began swinging him. I got to my feet and after I couldn't find the syringe, I ran back into action.

I hit Croc with several exploding WingDings, trying to pull his attention away from Donna. He turned my way and snapped his massive jaws at my head. Wonder Girl flew forward and both of us began kicking and punching the beast. I tossed a smoke pellet into his mouth and shocked him. He didn't even flinch.

Grundy was down, Ivy was being battled by four heros, while Cheetah and her foes had disappeared. Donna flew Killer Croc up about one hundred feet and began punching him while I tossed Wingdings at his abdomen. He got free and charged at me, but I flipped out of the way. I pulled out my escrima sticks and began hitting him with them. With each hit, I hit him with a jolt of electricity. Croc looked like he was right about to tumble over, but a surge of vines shot out. A thick vine laced itself to the sidewalk beneath me. I stepped back and toppled over the vine and on my back. Donna was still in the air, so she couldn't stop Croc in time. He jumped forward and grabbed my escrima sticks. His huge foot stepped on mine, causing a few toes to break. He yanked me up by my sticks, trying to tug them away from me. I held on, causing him to shake and twist them. My left arm snapped while my right wrist was easily dislocated.

"Fuck!" I screamed out, dropping to the ground. I saw out of the corner of my eye that Ivy was down. Connor and Victoria were still gone, but everyone else came running my way.

"Are you alright, Nightwing!?" Miss Martian shouted over the com.

"Y-yeah. Just a few broken toes. Get Croc!" I managed to get on my feet, despite my broken baby toe and middle toe. I couldn't walk, so Miss Martian swooped in and picked me up. She rested me behind a building. I saw Superboy come shooting out of the sky, landing hard on the ground with Cheetah. The female feline was knocked out instantly. Nightingale grappled down and kicked Croc in the back of the head. After a couple of minutes, Croc was down. All the villains were put in the bioship--which had most likely arrived during the battle--and we all flew to Blackgate. We dropped them off and arrived at the Watchtower.

"Alpha! There you are!" Aqualad called while we all walked in. Well, I didn't walk in. Donna carried me inside and rested me on the hospital bed we had at the Watchtower. I was injected with pain killers that made my vision fuzzy and given sleeping pills which made me fall asleep.

~~~~~~~~Not really a double update but it's still an improvement! This one is reaaallllyyyy short but the next chapters are gonna be kind of sweet so enjoy looking forward to that. Uh, so yeah. Anyway, vote comment and follow if you aren't already!~~~~~~~