28: Hello From the Other Side

84 4 0
                                    

AN: Hey guys! It's been a while here, but I am prepped to tell you that this fiction is almost finished! Six chapters to go I think? I'll try and get it up quickly. Thanks for all of the support!

- Felicity Amber Grimm
...

If Nightwing had been with us for my first trip through a zeta tube, I was almost 100% sure he would have insisted on my needing support in the form of someone carrying me. Him carrying me to be exact. As it was, I think I might have agreed.
"Well that's miserable," I whispered to Robin, feeling my head swim dangerously, "humans aren't meant for teleportation."

He gave me the usual flat look. Right. We had work to do. Sitdka shuffled irritably. I gestured for Robin to lead the way since I didn't know the layout.

"Be as quick as you can, he'll have heard us arrive," Green Arrow pulled out his bow, "Flash, give us a layout."
The speedster disappeared in a blur of red.

I glanced at Batgirl and Red Hood one more time.
"Don't die." Red Hood said.

Batgirl gave me a slightly more helpful smile as Flash returned.
"Found Bats and Nightwing- Supes might have followed, so-"
There was a crash as one of the walls down the hall exploded. I looked at Robin, feeling the adrenaline shoot through my veins like cold acid.

"Lead. Now."
He turned Tuffy in the opposite direction and I yelled to the horses to book it like no tomorrow. "Run horse run! Sitdka, follow!"

Sitdka bunched underneath me and I prayed Robin could steer going so fast. We shot away from the incoming chaos just as I heard Red Hood let out a string of curses.

Robin steered Tuffy off of the main hall and we descended into the maze of the League's Headquarters.

...

Superman didn't follow us. And I thanked God above that I had put rubber shoes on the horses a few weeks back. Otherwise our glorious run of insanity would have resulted in a slick skating rink for horses- and a really useless plan of transportation. Think cats on hardwood.

"How much farther?" I asked. Robin didn't answer, just kept making hairpin turns down new hallways and past several open areas.

Red Hood's voice came in on the comm system in his borrowed helmet. To be frank, it was weird.
-"Hurry it up! He's seriously pissed!"-

Had I known how to use the systems in said helmet, I would have replied. As it was, I didn't. And Robin steered us into a massive windowed space at precisely that moment. I about fell out of my saddle despite the severity of our situation. Sitdka swerved sharply to keep me on.
"Robin? Are we... in space?"

-"NIGHTRIDER! This is not the time to be staring at the view!"- Red Hood yelled in my ear. I winced.

But, he was right. I needed to focus... even if I could see the continents from here! Dude!
Focus Nightrider. You can ogle the planet after you're done saving it.

The control room itself was arranged in a wide open design with a central, massive curling bank of computers and screens making up the middle of the room. Images flashed across it, drawing the eye just as much as the glass making up the outside walls of the complex. Earth hovered in the inky black below, a green and blue orb watched over by the League's headquarters. We were in space. Someplace I didn't think I would ever be, let alone my horses.
Funny how life turns out when you take on an evil organization...

Robin was utterly unfazed by the view, so I assumed he'd been up here before. He didn't bother to stop Tuffy before leaping from her back to land at the computer bank.
"Nightrider, flash drive."

I pulled the drive from my utility belt, swinging my leg over Sitdka's back in a running dismount. With little time to lose, I stuffed the drive into Robin's outstretched hand.

He slammed the drive into a USB port and lines of code shot across the screens, replacing the flashing images from earlier. He fingers flew across the keys.

"Anything I can do?"

"Keep on alert," he answered tartly.

I nodded and whistled my horses to attention.
"Sitdka, Tuffy, alert."

They snorted. Each horse moved off in another direction, ears flicking and heads in the air. I slid out my staff from its holster and snapped it open just as both horses nickered softly and looked back to me. Adrenaline once again pumped like acid in my gut.

"Normal," I breathed, "there's a fight going on in the building, so slight alerts are normal-"

Tuffy neighed loudly, ears and eyes flicked briefly to me and then riveted to something I couldn't see. The floor rumbled dangerously beneath us. Somewhere in my chest, my heart skipped a couple of beats.
"Robin? I hope you're almost done, because we're about to have company," I glanced over my shoulder. Code still rolled across the screen

He snarled. "Stupid technology, only a blatant imbecile would have designed something so dense..."

I wasn't certain if he was insulting the maker of the code, Park, or the programmer of the computer, which was probably his own father. Either way, it didn't really matter. We were about to have bigger issues than his designation of their stupidity. Such as a large, muscular, mind controlled- and did I mention overpowered?- super human coming to kill us. The floor shuddered again and I could feel the presence coming towards us.
Mouth dry, I gave the horses one last command. "Tuffy, Sitdka, protect."

They whirled around to circle Robin.

And then the room exploded.

Night RiderWhere stories live. Discover now