eddie likes to (riddlethem) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2014-02-11 23:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | door: dc comics, riddler, stephanie brown |
Who: Eddie, Stephanie (part one!)
When: Backdated to the day before secret Valentines were sent out
Where: Tunnels -> Lazarus Pit
What: Explorin tunnels
Warnings: swearing, violence.
Eddie was feeling like a raw nerve that was plucked out of his skin. He knew it was better to “walk out” frustrations about some stupid anon comment fight than show up with all of the anger and insecurity and self-loathing shaking out of him. But, he was late and he needed to see his baby. Dressed in green with shiny black question marks dotting his suit, a black shirt and a silk purple tie, he was undoubtedly the Riddler. The guy with a twisty turny brain and a heart that went tick-tock. The funny thing was that he was already dressed like this when the anon asked him about his riddles, his mind, his girl. And, maybe that’s why he was feeling so damned defensive about it all.
The Riddler moved like Arkham. Jagged and quick blurs of bright colors with direction while the rest of the city wobbled out of the way. Not many people went to the old factory across from Blackgate City. Not many people got to appreciate his bright green in a dark city. Eddie knew the quiet was a good time to start planning out a route for the tunnels, but his mind drifted elsewhere. He went over the conversation in his head maybe a dozen times. It wasn’t the anon’s fault for not understanding, but they should have recognized their own ignorance. They should have realized it wasn’t about sharing his life with Stephanie, Stephanie who got all the pieces of him that she asked for and more. No, it was about feeling proud about getting his mind together. Wanting that gold star for taking care of his own problems instead of scratching an Arkham itch. Who else could claim to do that?
He asked Stephanie to meet him by one of the tunnel openings a night ago while they were in bed. He showed it to her on his phone and even mapped it into her GPS in that overly thoughtful way of his. Usually, he’d be the first one to arrive. Waiting like a beacon in the middle of Gotham rubble for her, but tonight he was late. Later than that rabbit Jervis used to prattle on about. “Evening,” Eddie said over their shared comm and a faint ping, ping started up. The man in green glanced around and saw her, crawled over some abandoned boxes and dropped down to his knees on the dirty ground next to her. His arms stretching around her torso, face pushing into her armored stomach as if he were trying to blend through it.
“Bad day.” He murmured into her belly. His voice would have been lost in the Gotham night if it weren’t for the fact he still had the comm on. “Someone was screwing with me on the journals. This anon business can get out anytime now.” Eddie looked up at her, eyes bright with hurt, but he smiled and rubbed his chin where her bellybutton was. “You don’t mind the green, right?” He asked about the suit, but also what green meant to him. To her.
Stephanie kind of regretted signing up for this Valentine’s business the second all of the anonymous business kicked in. Hiding behind a veil without a name or a face never ended well, she thought. Irony coming from a bat who swooped around in the night with nothing but her hair and her eyes to identify her. It was all fun and games with the first one, her Valentine who she and Eddie tag-teamed in their dorky trolldom until the anon couldn’t take it anymore. But then, Eddie’s anon had contacted her and ruined a surprise that he had been building up to for months. And then…
She initially freaked out about moving in with Eddie, more scared of what she could lose than what she was gaining. Of course she wanted to live with him; the last few months had been (mostly) a dream. She couldn’t imagine waking up one morning and not having him there. But, that was part of the fear, the panic over it all. What if they weren’t supposed to move through their relationship? When was Gotham going to catch up and take it all away from them? Her fear wasn’t completely one-sided, of course, and both she and Eddie were rightfully scared of what Gotham could do to something so wonderful and right. They thankfully worked through it though, even if her fears weren’t assuaged, and celebrated in their own little way with a tie and him climbing up her body for hours and hours.
That felt like weeks ago standing here in the shadows of a dirty Gotham factory instead of less than a day, tangled up in bed and just plain happy. Stephanie just wanted to go back to that, frankly. Back to her needling him into bed and him teasing her until he had her begging for more. But, work needed to be done, didn’t it? The world didn’t stop crumbling just because they wanted to lose themselves in the easy domesticity they created over the last few months and would continue to perpetuate in the foreseeable future. There were tunnels to explore, plans to be made, Wonder Citys to be seen. And apparently, more anonymous posters to talk about.
She heard his voice on the comm before she saw him, and when she felt his nose bury into the kevlar, she sighed. “Hi, you,” she said, fingers tangling into his dark curls, uncaring about the slicked back look that completed the Riddler. She didn’t mind seeing him in his green either. It didn’t rumble under her skin the same way it used to. She ran her hand through his hair a few times, and as he spoke, her fingers tightened in his hair nervously. “I--of course I don’t mind it, baby. It’s you.” Her grip slacked, and she traced her gloved hand down the side of his face and to the tip of his chin. Bopping his nose, she smiled down softly at him even as her stomach tightened.
Eddie felt her body tighten under his grip and at first he chalked it up to nerves. Going down into Wonder City wasn’t like beating up goons or stopping purse thieves. It was real Gotham danger that only struck the city once in a blue moon. He beamed up at her anyway, eyes trailing away from her as he checked to see if the moon was blue. Nope. Same old smog colored yellow hanging like it was going to fall right off the damned sky. Eddie wobbled to his feet and pulled her hips towards him, inch by inch, until he could kiss her. It wasn’t until then that he felt like something was wrong. That it was more than Gotham jitters that made her a little stiff in his arms.
“Bad, bad night.” He repeated with a shake of his head. “It’s better now, though.” It was a little more of a question than a statement. As if he could tell she wasn’t feeling great either. Was him being there was more helpful than hindering? Eddie couldn’t believe how insecure being in love made him. Well, no. He had always been an insecure man. Would a man who really believed he was a super genius shove his smarts down other people’s throats? No. But, he liked to think he had graduated past that.
She kissed him back and tried to push away the jittery nervousness that pervaded her body. Usually, she wasn’t able to lose the Batgirl and Riddler personas when they were dressed up together like this, but she tried so very hard to put all of herself into the embrace. Arms thrown around his neck and pulling him as close as physically possible when they were both in their Gotham get-ups. It didn’t work, or maybe it worked too well. Surely Eddie would be able to tell something was off. She was able to tell something was off with him.
Pulling back, she rested her head on his chest, arms still around him like he was a lifeboat. “I’m sorry, baby,” was all Stephanie said after a moment, one hand sliding down to curl into his tie and tugging like that would tug all of the problems out of him. She took a deep breath of the dirty Gotham air and pressed a kiss to his chest, then a few more. “I’m sorry,” she repeated softly. The apologies were sounding suspiciously guilty. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Eddie gave an oof when she latched onto him, laughing into her shoulder until the embrace took a little too long and he noticed she wasn’t laughing with him. His eyes went a little wide as his mind raced. It had to have been leftover Damian blues, right? He had read a couple books (when she wasn’t looking) that said the mourning period could rest below the skin and pop right back up out of nowhere just from hearing a song or seeing a familiar sign. That’s what it was, right?
“Don’t apologize, I’m a big boy.” He said with a smile and waited for her to look up at him. “I just got in a fight with some internet troll. About my-” Eddie squinted, the wheels in his head slamming on the breaks. “I bet that one talked to you, too. Right? It seemed to have approximate knowledge of Gotham so maybe-” He exhaled and let her go, taking a step back so he could run his hand through his hair.
“I work my ass off, you know? I work really hard to keep my head on straight. And, I like learning how to do it. I never tried to navigate my own mind until I tried to get better. Sometimes I need to order medication to keep the anxiety low. Sometimes I have to call Leland. But, I know how to take care of it. I’m proud I’ve gotten as far as I have. So, this anon tells me I need to go to you for everything. Like I’m weak. Like I’ll never be able to handle my mind on my own.” Eddie wandered a few steps away from her. Hands moving as he talked. Sometimes he turned to look at her to make a point. Sometimes he spinned on his heels with his finger in the air to add a sharp point. “I let it get to me. And, I blew up.”
There was a tense twitch of her lips, but she didn’t smile up at him fully. Times like this, she wished that she had her goddamn eyes covered so that he couldn’t figure out something was wrong with her. Stephanie was never, ever really good at hiding how she felt, especially in the face of someone who knew her so well. Eddie knew her like the back of his hand, didn’t he?
“No, I--,” she mumbled, but then he was off, and she wasn’t about to stop him. It was all a familiar story, Eddie battling with the insecurities in his head. She knew all about that. She had seen it before; she experienced shades of it herself. Crossing her arms, she watched him pace back and forth as he rambled on about what set him off, and she didn’t try to interject at all. The blonde bat just listened to her green boyfriend rant about how the anon had dug into his brain and twisted until it hurt. Until he nearly raveled apart. Eddie was upset; Stephanie could sense that from miles away. And, she knew why he was upset. She shrugged as he went through what he thought the anon meant because she didn’t want to agree. More than anything in the world, she hated that hurt look in his eyes and the lilt in his voice, but she didn’t want to agree. She didn’t-
“I didn’t mean to upset you!” she blurted suddenly just after he finished, and her hand flew up to her mouth in surprise. Blue eyes wide and apologetic and oh fuck had she just admitted that? She fucking had, hadn’t she? The tightness in her chest grew, and she muttered an, “oh fuck,” before she looked down at the filthy street underneath their feet.
Eddie was right in the middle of making his final point about how the anon had insulted Stephanie. His hand in the air, finger pointing up so it looked like the moon was balancing right on the tip of his fingernail. He stopped like all the gears inside of his little body seized up and everything clicked into place. Eddie had never asked himself why the anon was hounding him about her. If he had, he would have probably figured it out a long time ago. He turned to look at her, expression like an actor who just forgot his line. “You?” He asked, voice hitting a confused high that didn’t happen very often. Eddie tuuuuurrrrnnned his body towards her and cocked his head to the side as his raised hand slowly sank back into Gotham’s depths.
“Stephanie, you know I’m always going to have this illness, right?” He stepped forward, hand stretched out in front of him like he was trying to figure out what even footing they were on. “And, you know you can’t cure it for me. You know what would happen if you were my last hope at keeping my mind together, right?” In the moonlight, Eddie was very Gotham. He was Riddler. Asking his questions, knowing the real danger inside of him and lurking around their feet. But, Stephanie (and only Stephanie) could see that wide-eyed look for what it really was. A runaway street rat who accepted his fate a long time ago. Who knew life had to be fought for and sometimes that battle was a lonely one. “Baby, I thought you knew.”
Stephanie froze when he turned and turned his head like a wounded dog, and she bit down hard on her lip. She didn’t stare at his face, couldn’t stare at his face, instead looking at the finger slowly drooping down from its pedestal high down, down, down to the Gotham lows where they both belonged. She didn’t want to think about how lofty they could both feel around each other, or how easily one wrong would could tear one of them down. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. Steph would never deliberately hurt him unless he had done it first. But, that was their story, right? They tried so hard not to hurt each other, but in the end, sometimes they ended up doing damage that might be permanent.
“I know that, baby. I know,” she pleaded, begging him to not get angry, to not be upset. She dared a step forward and finally looked at his face. “I didn’t mean that--I am so fucking proud of you for doing this yourself. I am so fucking proud. But, I just--.” She sighed in frustration, frustrated at herself but not him. “I just wanted to talk to you about getting her for my match without like, letting you know it was me. I didn’t mean to get into all of that. It just happened. And, I just wanted you to know that I will always be there if you need me. You don’t need to rely on me if you don’t want to. I don’t want to be the only reason you’re better. Not anymore. Maybe I did at first, when this all started, but I get it. I just--sometimes, some things are hard to get for me. Sometimes I don’t want you to have to deal with it yourself. I’m sorry.”
Eddie stepped forward, fingers moving against her cowl as if they were miming pushing hair out of her eyes. Gotham had a way of changing context through suits and cowls. This conversation wouldn’t have felt so end-of-the-world wrapped in bed with her, it wouldn’t have felt like they were on two different sides of a battlefield. And, maybe that was why things never worked out for meow face and her Dark Knight. Maybe all they saw were kevlar and shiny claws. “Hey, hey.” He tugged her close, hands on each side of her face before he pulled her into a long hug. “It’s different coming from you. You are my lighthouse. My compass, remember? I just- I can’t stand someone who doesn’t know us telling me what to do.”
He pulled back to look at her, dark eyes searching to see if there was something else. If this was more than a conversation about his brain that got out of hand. “You have to admit, you’d get tired of me real fast if I told you every little thing ticking in my head. I’d be whiny like Crane, but worse.” Eddie smiled like he wanted her to smile, too. A dog wagging his tail to tell her that everything was going to be okay. “That stuff you said about me keeping things from you because I think you’re keeping things- you know that’s not true, right? I don’t even see this as keeping anything from you. It’s just learning how to keep things together.” He pulled back and pushed his fingers together in front of their faces.
Stephanie knew too that she would have felt better talking about it if they shed their different Gotham personas. Maybe her heart wouldn’t be pounding so hard in her chest. Wasn’t that how things always worked out between she and Eddie? They were only shades of themselves when they were in their bright secondary colors, and sometimes it was hard to wade through all of that to find each other. The way he tenderly caressed her cowl snapped her back though, quelled the hammering in her chest, calmed the nausea bubbling in her stomach. Her arms wrapped tightly around him to return the hug, and she sighed. “I swear I didn’t mean to make it anything about that. I wanted your input on the present. But I knew we shouldn’t actually talk about it. I didn’t want to dig into your brain, baby.”
He might be able to see something else troubling her mind. But, there were so many things that troubled her mind lately, and she didn’t want to bring up what his anon had told her about Eddie’s first present wish. She tried to squeeze it out of her mind, tried to push it out of her eyes. The Crane comment earned a tiny bubble of a laugh, and she did smile at him when he looked at her like that. Like he wanted to assure her that it was all okay. “I’m sorry,” she said again, and it might sound like it was losing meaning if she didn’t sound so sincere. Circumventing his joined hands, her gloved fingers caught his chin.
“I want you to know that I’m always going to be your compass, your lighthouse.” She bit down on her lip. “I’ve got to learn to stop taking things like that so personally. Okay? I know that. I know you want to be able to patch yourself up too, and I don’t want to be your only anchor. Just.” She shrugged, tugging on his chin, looking down at the gravelly floor beneath before back up to him. “It hurts thinking of you losing control. Y’know? And not being able to do a goddamn thing about it. I feel like I’m getting out of control.”
Eddie liked to tell people he was a coward. That he jumped ship when things got bad or avoided responsibilities because they were too difficult. He told people he was a coward because it made him fit into what was expected of him. A little crazy thief that screamed when bats flew down from the ceiling. A green snake instead of a lionheart. But, he could look the darkest part of himself in the eye without blinking. And, he knew Stephanie could, too. “It’s a disability. Think of it like that. I’m going to have some good days and some bad days. And, you deserve better, I know you do, but I’m lucky you’ll put up with it.” He leaned into her fingers, kissing that gloved hand before moving past her to a door on the side of the factory that looked like it hadn’t been opened in ages. He put his violet glasses on, entered a code into the ancient keypad nearby and then swung the door open.
“I think the thing we should be talking about is that you got Muerte for a Valentine.” He teased, sticking his head out from behind the door before vanishing into the factory. Inside, the path was surprisingly narrow. A hallway that lead to a collapsed stairway down, down into the heart of Wonder City. Eddie stood at the edge of the dark hole in the ground and then slowly knelt, waving his hand as if he was touching the surface of water. The pinging started back up again, chipper and friendly as the stairway slowly rebuilt itself like a flickering projector playing destruction backwards.
“It’s got nothing to do with who I deserve or what I put up with.” She did sigh in frustration, rolling her eyes right in his face as he kissed her covered hand and shooting him a pointed look. That would be one argument that would never die, that she would never let him win. Sure, he might think that she would be better off with some normal, collegiate boyfriend who could take her to keggers and take a psych class with her, but Stephanie had danced that dance already. She didn’t want or need anyone else but her riddled man, and she couldn’t picture a future where that would be any different. It was ironic, of course, that she was so scared of real commitment when she was clearly already too far deep to look back. But, she was a scared little bird sometimes. Not the big bad bat she wanted to be.
Rolling her eyes again, she followed inside with a smirk crawling up her lips. “Oh, you think this is funny, don’t you?” she asked, head poking around the door towards the inside before she stepped fully into the cramped hallway. Her hands trailed the walls on her side as if to keep them far enough away from her. “This hotel’s got to be conspiring against me. How the fuck did I get her?” Exasperation filled her voice, even with the amusement tugged on the edges. She closed in on him, standing just above him and peering over into the abyss just as the staircase seemed to materialize out of nowhere. She whistled, leaning in further to look. Hand gripping his shoulder and placing some of her weight there. “That looks like a long fall, baby.”
Eddie lifted his hand and a green light poured from his fingertips, geometric symbols spinning around like dust in a sunbeam. “Wonder City was built as far down as it goes. I believe part of it has been blocked off by Blackgate and the project Lex is working on.” Eddie was superstitious, so much so that he wouldn’t say Watchtower out in the open. “But, I don’t think they got all of it.” He started down the stairs, his first step a hesitant one as if he expected the rebuilt stairs to merely be a projection in front of him and then gave a sigh of relief when his foot hit solid stone. “Whew.” Eddie said to himself and smiled sheepishly up to Stephanie before trailing down the stairway.
Machina pinged and Eddie agreed with a hum. “Mac thinks that if Lex found the- green stuff- we’d know. I put all my best security on it the last time I was there. I think first priority is to check on it, though.” Which brought the conversation right back around to Muerte. “Are you actually going to get something for her? I think her wanting to get tights is sad. Depressing, even. But, talking to the anon- well you about it got my gears grinding again.” He was reluctant to admit that anyone got to him. He was even more reluctant to admit that Muerte still bothered him if he thought about it too long. Eddie didn’t have the impulse to judge people, but he did get hurt. “That was rude by the way, calling me her keeper.” Eddie shined the green light at her as a warning, though there wasn’t anything serious in his voice. Maybe a year ago he’d get pissy at every little thing Stephanie did to him. But, damn it he loved her more every day.
Stephanie made a noise as he placed his foot on the first step, equally worried that the stairwell wasn’t real at all, and oh god, she did not want him plummeting to the bottom of that hole. She might have to snap his ankle off grapplehooking him to safety. Luckily, it was real, and she couldn’t hide the sigh of relief and the returned smile when he was okay. After a second’s hesitation, she followed him down, trailing slowly behind him and marvelling at Mac’s work. Sure, the blonde bat still didn’t fully trust the alien technology and what influence it might have on Eddie, but it--she was growing on her more and more by the day. It was hard to hate something that pinged around her apartment and created such good shortcuts when there was exploring necessary.
She rumbled an agreeing noise, too. “I think we would have a big problem on our hands already if he did.” The Lazarus Pit caused problems even within the ranks of the “good people,” and if Lex and the government got their hands on the goop? Who knows what could happen. “That would be really, really, really bad,” Steph stated obviously. “You think--they might try to weaponize it. They could, I’m sure.” The idea of seeing that sickly green goop again had her stomach lurching in that familiar way, and she was quiet for a minute. “We have to, don’t we?” She’d be okay. It wasn’t going to burn her skin again or spit out Jason with that dead look in his eyes. She would be okay. “Yeah, we have to. I get it.”
The blonde bat trained a steady look on his retreating form. “Do you think I should?” All the questions she asked Eddie as that anon was genuine. She wanted to know his opinions on all of that, on Muerte, and that way, she had to censor her hatred for the patron saint. She didn’t want to admit that asking for tights was a little sad because Stephanie never, ever, ever wanted to feel bad about Muerte. “Gears grinding how?” she asked, and then she smirked. “I just asked if you did. You didn’t disagree.”
The stairs kept spiraling down and down like some kind of gothic castle built for ghost and vampire lords. He wondered how they came to be. If the man who owned this factory delivered goods to Wonder City or if it was built later. But, why? How did Gotham hold so many secrets? Eddie turned to look at her in that quiet moment she pondered the Lazarus Pit, seeing if she was ready for it. But, she had to be. One day she might have to go there herself and Eddie always believed it was good to be prepared. Plus, Stephanie was made of stronger stuff than most people.
Eddie turned, his slight shoulders shrugging in that way he did when he didn’t quite have all the answers. “Sometimes I just get mad thinking about what she’s done. Even though I’m not supposed to get mad at that stuff. Even though it was unintentional, right?” His voice lifted as if he were telling a lie. As if he couldn’t believe that if he said it a thousand times over. “It’s just. I let her back into my life after months of not talking to her and somehow she manages to screw things up again. She pushes you, tests us and then I feel bad because she’s got no one else in her corner. So, you’re right. I guess I think I’m her keeper. I just can’t figure out why.” He didn’t say anything for a couple flights, then they stairway abruptly ended, opening up to a industrial cavern below. Eddie shone a green light down, catching glimpses of broken buildings, catwalks and bridges as if they were looking down on a residential area of Gotham.
“I hear water. Can you check it out?” Eddie looked up at her, pressing his body against the wall so she could move past him.
If Eddie weren’t in front of her, Stephanie might have skidded off into the cavern because of the abrupt end in it, but she slowed her pace down until she came to a halt a few steps above him. “Yeah,” she agreed to looking down below them. As she walked the last few steps, she fiddled with the cowl for a second, and the mostly dark pathway lit up in her vision. She was always grateful for the hi-tech improvements Oracle had made to her Batsuit even before this door existed, and this was one of the more useful ones. “You look terrible in night vision,” she teased, lying completely because she would never think he looked terrible at all.
“You’re allowed to get mad about it,” she retorted. “Maybe it was unintentional, even though I don’t think so. But you get pissed when I do things unintentionally, right? Some things. And what she did was big things.” Stephanie slowly lowered to a crouch, inching closer and closer to the edge of the cavernous depth below them. Before she looked down, she looked up at Eddie. “I’m not going to go on about how fucked up I think that is, baby, because I hate her more than I think I’ve hated anyone in all this time we’ve been in this door. And, that includes my father.” She sighed, arms spreading out and fingers digging into the unrelenting rock to brace herself. “But, I will say this: do you think it’s healthy for you? To have a friend like that, who drums up all those things.”
Peering over the edge, she took a few moments of silence to observe the scene below. Whistling in amazement, she was frankly a little taken back by the sight before her. It looked like it could have been Gotham in another life, but somehow the city was leveled. Like a bomb went off, or an earthquake shook all the structures to pieces. Crumbling edifices, cracked concrete, broken catwalks dangling down. Eddie was right about the water. She could hear the rush of it before she even saw it. Flowing whitish green slipping between buildings and down what used to be streets no doubt, a dirty stream of water rushing through a dirty, old city.
“There’s a stream down there. Don’t know where it’s coming from. This looks huge.” Stephanie sounded awed. She was awed. She looked up at him, blue eyes foggy by the haze of her nightvision lenses, and smiled. “I’m going down there.” Popping out of her crouch, she saluted him and aimed her grapple gun to a nearby broken catwalk that she could swing down to. “If I die a horrible, mutant-related death, say nice things at my funeral.” Bang went the gun, and her line flew into the darkness.
“You know why you think you’re her keeper?” she asked suddenly, one boot over the edge. “Because you see a lot of yourself in her.” Before he could respond, she dropped over the edge and into the darkness. After a moment, he could hear a distant clang and maybe a string of loud curses and the whine of old metal underneath young weight.
“You’re going down there?” He repeated, eyes going a little wide and he waved his arms in protest before almost losing his balance and clinging to the stairway again. He watched her size up the wreckage below, recognizing that familiar bat quality that he knew like the back of his riddled hand. Despite his protest he smiled at her, charmed like he was watching her go off into battle. “I’m burying you on the batcycle.” He murmured back to her, eyes on that boot as he tried not to think about the billion different ways she could slip and fall to her death in a hole under Gotham.
The comment about why he was Muerte’s “keeper” made his eyes flash up at her, mouth open to respond before she jumped down into the ancient city below. He squeaked out a noise, hand on his heart when he heard her curse and sighed out a long breath of relief. Eddie crouched down and sat on the final stair leading to the abyss and shone a light down to try and see her. “Damn.” The bright green was swallowed easily by the murky darkness. Fumbling for his glasses, he put them on, changed the lens to a neon night vision and then switched to infrared vision to find where she was.
“You look hot in infrared, hoh hoh.” Eddie called down, scanning the rest of the city until he caught sight of a big ball of red. He switched back over to the comm. “Uh, Steph I think you have company.” Eddie whispered. “To your right about five yards.”
Below him there was a guttural sound of a man who hadn’t spoken to another human in a long time. Angry, crazed like a rabid animal and large. There was a STOMP and then the sound of one of the buildings creaking under the weight of a giant boot. The yell turned into a laughing growl as the lost Wonder City soul thumped closer and closer to Batgirl. Doors were ripped off hinges, catwalks shook and shattered. And, there was the beast. All humanity poured out of his insane, beedy eyes. Face painted in smears of white and purple. Fists the size of wrecking balls.
Ping!
“I’m not jumping, you’re crazy.” Eddie told Mac from his perch above, trying to use his mind to find a way he could get down without killing himself in the process.
Don’t you want a shortcut?
The staircase he was sitting on suddenly crumbled into nothing. Stone flattening into pixels and spreading up and away from him in a flurry. Eddie always liked the sensation of falling, didn’t he? Didn’t every rogue? His body tumbled forward, arms flailing up as he tried to hold onto something and he spun forward before floating onto his feet and gently sailing down across the broken city from Stephanie and the giant brute.
Eddie didn’t bother taking a second to catch his breath before he bolted. One second of hesitation was how people died in Gotham.
When the blonde bat landed in the depths below, she wasn’t concerned about being quiet. She jumped to another catwalk with a loud bang!, and she kicked off a piece of metal as far as she could. As Eddie’s voice echoed down, her laugh bounced around, too. “Do I get to hit you every time you make a pun?” Stephanie teased back, not hearing the lumbering giant bolting towards her, not until she heard the warning over the comm. “What, where?” she squeaked in surprise before jerking her head to her right. She saw the remnants of doors and catwalks and debris flying in the air, and she stumbled back, attempting to move out of the way. But, the giant was surprisingly fast, clotheslining her with a forearm built like a thick wooden log.
Oof echoed over the rush of the water, and she crashed into a shallow stream with a loud splash. “I didn’t know Grundy had a cousin!” she called out both to the goon and to Eddie, not entirely aware that Eddie was making his own way down the cavern. Stephanie rolled forward and onto her feet in a fluid, acrobatic motion. Out of the water, but still dripping dirty...well, whatever else was in the rushing body. She spluttered and wiped her mouth. “C’mon man, I’ve heard of all natural mouthwash, but this is kinda ridiculous.” The giant growled, then swung a heavy fist at her head. Stephanie dodged in time for this one though, ducking down and sweeping his feet out from under him. She caught the giant off-guard, enough to have him stumble and slip on the wet puddles under his feet, and Steph placed a heavy boot on his throat.
“See? Do I get a prize?” She looked up as she called out, talking to an Eddie that wasn’t up there anymore. But her gloating lowered her defences, and the giant grabbed her delicate ankle and yanked. Slamming her down to the floor backwards hard enough for her to see stars.
“Yo, dude,” Batgirl groaned as the giant lumbered back up to his feet, not sitting up but cradling her head. “I don’t think my Obamacare covers me down here. No concussions, please.” A heavy fist slammed down to the ground, but Stephanie rolled out of the way just in time, pushing herself to her feet in the process. She got close enough to elbow him in the gut, which did little damage, then up to his mouth, where she hopefully knocked out a few of his remaining teeth. A kick to the stomach gave her enough room to stand up straight and defensive. She spat out a little more of the dirty water she nearly swallowed in what she thought was a totally badass move.
The Riddler hurdled through the abandoned homes, slipping down crooked floors, climbing up cabinets and squirming through broken windows. Eventually he got to her, watching in horror as the giant made huge, slow swings at his lady love. He didn’t often get to see Stephanie in action (unless he was watching her tear apart CGI goons in the training center) and it was enough for him to stop dead in his tracks and admire. He really was a lucky rogue, wasn’t he?
“Get it together, Nigma.” He chided himself like a baseball player who was one swing from striking out because he couldn’t stop looking at a pretty blonde in the stands. Okay, right. Crime fighting. Avoiding death. Good. He looked around the half destroyed living room he was standing in that lead out towards where the brawl was and glanced down at Machina on his wrist.
“Riddle me this.” He murmured and looked around the room as it suddenly lit up. Color shot out under his shoes and crawled up the walls in a comic book array of dots and primary hues. The couch bloomed in bright blue, the table shined and the wallpaper popped out yellows and greens. “If you’re freezing cold, what do you light first? The lamp, the heater or the wood burning stove?”
Ping!
A drawer popped open and a tiny, worn matchbox leapt out. It slowly started to grow the size of a tub and then a small car. Its hulking rectangle back smashed the roof above as it sat up. The top slid open as matches flipped out to form the arms and legs. The matchbox monster reached into its own belly, pulled out a match the size of a cane and scratched it down its side. “Okay, okay yeah. That. That works.” Eddie gulped, watching it lumber towards the giant, waving a stream of fire at it. Machina pinged happily.
The giant groaned as Batgirl kicked his mouth, rotten teeth tumbling out as he lifted a large paw and got ready to slam it down into her skull. He heard the whoosh of fire and turned to see the matchbook monster. The giant’s beedy eyes widened in confusion as he gave out a strangled yell of fear. Whatever meat on Stephanie’s bones the giant wanted wasn’t worth going toe to toe with a nightmare, so he pushed the girl out of the way and made a run for it, his giant feet echoing through the Wonder City damp streets into nothing.
The matchbox monster turned as if to look at Eddie before crumbling into a rush of geometry and pixels that felt like a cloud of static off computer screens. “Hey.” Eddie said as darkness and quiet settled over them, somehow out of breath. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have- I didn’t-” The pinging slowly faded and the colors drained out of the living room he was standing in. Eddie rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t know I could do that.”
Cass had told Stephanie that her quipping was unnecessary, and maybe it was a bit too distracting for her to keep joking. Her mouthiness tended to rile the goons up, but truthfully, she needed the words like she needed her kevlar. The jokes were a shield, too, in the cowl and out. Still, she might get a little too distracted in the name of a good zinger, and the lumbering goon managed to connect again with her nose (it was always the nose). A slow stream of red spilled down the front of her cowl and over her lips. “Always the goddamn nose!” She flapped in frustration, crouching to dodge another swing of his oafish arm.
He brought up his arm in a wide, hard arc, and Batgirl’s eyes widened behind the fog of her night vision lenses. She stumbled back, ready to brace the blow with shielded arms, but then there was nothing. Nothing but a strangle of fear from the giant in front of her. Her arms lowered quickly, swift cut through the air lost in the rush of water around them. Stephanie thought maybe she had gotten a concussion because there was no way a huge-ass matchbox monster. “Holy shit. Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” She moved to run out of the way, but the goon shoved her, causing her to stumble. Splash went the water again as Batgirl fell into stream, and she began scrambling back until it poofed away into little explosions of technology and Eddie’s voice echoed through the cavern.
Stephanie laughed, a little nervously and mostly shocked at what just happened. Wiping the blood from her nose down to her mouth, she stood up slowly, searching for him in the dark. “Thanks for the nightmare fuel, baby,” she teased. “That was--that was--wow.” She was genuinely impressed. The blonde bat had never seen anything like that before, and she had seen a lot.