NightQuinn

Don't Make Me Regret This

Mercy Bridge, Gotham, 10:21 PM

Harley skipped along the smaller, hidden paths near the bottom of the bridge between Gotham's Miagani and Bleake Islands. Whistling a tune to herself, she tried looking for the perfect place to plant Joker's bombs. Most of the parts that, if detonated, would bring the bridge down almost completely, they were too easy to see. The more hidden locations, however, wouldn't cause enough damage if the explosives were placed there.

She walked further along the areas of the bridge shrouded in darkness and down a metal staircase leading lower down the bridge's support columns. Her eyes lit up and she smiled with glee as she saw the perfect location for her bombs. It was towards the bottom of one of the columns of the bridge, meaning that if the bombs went off there, the column would fall. Also, it was lower down, meaning there was less chance for the explosives to be spotted. "Ohh, I'm gonna make ya so proud Mr. J!" She said to herself.

Skipping with glee, she walked down to a small platform near the spot she had decided to plant the bombs and placed her bag by her side. She unzipped the bag to reveal a multitude of C4 explosives. She took one out of the bag before a voice called out from behind. "Joker send you to do his dirty work again?" She turned around and saw Nightwing. Harley pouted.

"I could say the same thing about why B-Man sent ya here." She smiled out of pride for coming up with that response on the fly. Dick scowled slightly. "Touchè." He responded. "But I still have to put you behind bars. Again."

Harley pointed one of her pistols at him. "Not tonight, Chickenwing." She said, cocking the gun. "Mr. J gave me a job to do."

"That's why I need to stop you." Dick retorted, grinning slightly. Quickly, he dropped a smoke pellet and grappled up to an overhead support beam. Harley fired blindly into the cloud of smoke he had left behind. From the shadows above, Dick looked into the bag on the floor. Seeing a detonator in said bag, he realised there wasn't a timer on the explosives, meaning that his priority should be taking Harley down.

Quinn unholstered her other pistol and began searching for Nightwing. Dick realised he had to act fast, before she could find his location. Leaping down from the support beam, he shot his grapnel gun at one of her guns, sending it flying out of her hand. As he got to his feet, he fired a sleeping dart from his wrist launcher and it embedded itself in her abdomen. Bad shot. Dick thought. A dart to the torso would take a few seconds to have any effect on her, giving her time to act.

Realising she only had a few seconds to do anything, she aimed her gun at the bag of explosives. Dick's eyes widened, he took a second to think of a plan of action. That was a second too long, as Harley pulled the trigger and begun to pass out as the sleep dart kicked in. The bombs detonated, blasting the two off of the platform and sending them plummeting towards the water and rocks below the bridge. Acting fast, Dick grabbed Harley's arm and, with his other hand. shot his grapnel gun upwards, hoping to latch onto something. Suddenly their momentum stopped in mid air as his grapnel had managed to attach to part of the bridge.

Slowly, Dick lowered himself and the unconscious supervillain onto some of the rocks below. As they neared the ground, the beam that they were grappled onto gave way as it had been damaged in the explosion, sending them crashing down. As they landed, Dick rolled onto his back and sighed. "Not my best landing." He groaned. After sitting up and making sure he hadn't sustained any serious injuries, he leaned over and placed a hand on Harley's neck. She still has a pulse, good start. He said internally. Then he realised the decision he had to make.

She was hurt badly from that explosion, to the point where she would need serious medical attention and plenty of time to heal. If he took her back to Arkham, they'd barely care for her injuries, giving just below the bare minimum of care. The same would go for Blackgate, Belle Reve, Iron Heights or any penitentiaries. If he took her to Bruce, he'd simply hand her in to the authorities and she'd end up in one of those places anyway. The rest of the Batfamily would want her arrested, his brothers, Jason and Damian, in particular would want her dead. Any of his friends would want the same. He thought about handing her in to the Teen Titans, but then he remembered Damian had taken up the leadership duties and Dick had established the dangers of having Damian and an injured Harley in the same room. He had to come up with something.

He thought for a second about taking her to his apartment, before immediately shooting down that idea. He couldn't take her to his apartment. There was no way that was happening. He wasn't about to take a supervillain to the place where he has to eat, sleep and live out his day to day life. He stopped for a second. He realised there was no other choice, no other possible answer. He sighed and looked over at her pale, unconscious, bruised and slightly bloodied body. "Don't make me regret this." He said under his breath before picking her up and beginning to make his way back home.

After carrying Harley across Gotham's rooftops, he entered his apartment through the window. He walked through the cluttered mess of his home and pushed the bedroom door open, laying Quinn across his bed. He was about to remove his mask out of habit, then realising who was right in front of him, he kept it on before leaving the bedroom to find his first aid kit.