Superman exploded out of the flooring like some kamikaze mole and I sprawled slightly in order to not crash to the ground. I had just about enough time to think 'oh s***' before his blank eyes locked onto Robin and I. It couldn't have been more than a split second, but I saw it in the slight shift of his body as he directed his full attention to my young friend.
He was going to dismantle the brightly clad hero before he even thought about getting to me. That also meant anything that got in his way was going first- my horses included.
Said horses pinned their ears. My legs shook.
I made my decision.
"Don't even think of it!" I ran at Superman and brought my staff cracking down across his stomach. All the pent up hatred I had for what Cadmus had done went into the blow. By some stroke of utter stupid, the Man of Steel flinched at it and turned his attention to me.
S***.
His arm connected with my already bruised ribs and sent me flying. My body collided with the end of the computer bank. I think I might have screamed, but I couldn't breath. Or think clearly for that matter. Red's helmet had saved my life but I could feel the fuzziness of another concussion clouding my head.
Whatever you do Nightrider, don't pass out. I groaned, feeling a crack in my ribs as I rolled out of the metal. I forced my gaze up. Superman, despite the swimming of my vision-
Oh god.
From my spot flat on the floor, I watched the Man of Steel zero in on my team.
"Red!" I yelled, "Please tell me you injected him!" Please let the com thingy work, please let the com thingy work, please let the-
Static filled the line. The world slowed.
The lack of answer didn't change much. Robin still needed to get that code up and I had still vowed to take on the league of assassins for him. Wrong league currently, but the idea? Probably a concussion induced miscalculation.
With mind choking terror telling me opposite, I yelled at Robin.
"Get it up! I've got this!"
"Nightrider-" he whirled around, realizing what I was about to do. Tuffy squealed angrily at Superman and planted herself firmly in Robin's way, ready to fight even as I got to my feet...
... and made the most recklessly impulsive decision in my life.
"Hey, Superman!" I ran at the caped Kryptonian and tackled him around the middle.
...
It was like hitting a steel wall- in a word? Painful. We toppled backwards.
It was probably more from the shock of being hit by something so blatantly stupid that my ploy actually sent us crashing backwards. Right into the hole he had created in the floor. We smashed into the level below with me screaming half at him and half at my broken ribs.
Black dots swam in my vision as I tried to get out of our tangle of limbs. My chest was on fire, a fact not helped when I felt him grab me around my midsection. Desperate, I thrashed only to have hands tighten and yank me up into the air. He held me in front of him and started to squeeze.
Face to face and about to die, I briefly wondered if Cadmus was being dramatic since it wasn't time effective to slowly crush somebody when you could blow their head off with laser vision instead. Maybe Cadmus sucked at making proper use of Superman's abilities?-
The thought fled my mind when he squeezed harder and pain lanced through everything. I stared into his blank blue eyes as blot dots swam in mine.
"Superman," I wheezed, "I know you're in there. You've got to fight it!"
His face didn't change. Yeah, hadn't really expected it to work in the first place, but the movies always seem to make it seem like a good idea.
The black dots took up more and more of my vision. I clawed at his grip on my midsection even as my fuzzy brain grew fuzzier.
A gun went off somewhere.
Superman's head whirled around to look for its source, me slowly crushing to death in his grip. The gun went off again, rapid fire. Bullets pinged off of the Kryptonian, ricocheting off of walls and deafening any last thoughts I might have had about what the hell was happening.
Dimly, Red Hood rolled out from a side hall. His shoulder was bleeding and when he spoke he sounded pissed.
"It's rude to leave the party you know."
YOU ARE READING
Night Rider
FanfictionLyn Walker gave up everything to protect her family. To keep them safe she faked her death, and now through a haze of guilt and grief she must figure out how to live again. All while dealing with the confusion of being under the supervision of the f...
