Who: Dick Grayson (Narrative) What: Scarecrow's in town and so is his fear gas When: Late Night Where: The streets outside some fast food joints Rating: low
Nightwing didn't need to patrol the city, if you could even call Madison Valley a 'city'. It was hard not to do the thing you were trained to do though, so on occasion, Dick would walk around during the evening and patrol as himself. This meant he often saved a few people from muggings or stopped someone drunk from getting behind the wheel and while back home that might have felt like not enough, here it kind of did.
He was doing his patrol thing tonight, hands in his pockets as he casually walked and surveyed the arear casually. When a cry erupted around the corner, Dick was quick to make it there. He saw a man who was screaming 'get them off! get them off!' He seemed to be trying to brush off things crawling all over him, but Dick couldn't see any on the man. He man was flailing and panicking so much he was headed for the road. Dick managed to grab him before the man was hit by a passing car. He brought the man back to the side of the building and tried to reason with him when another shriller cry rang out. Hands still on first man's shoulders, Dick turned his head to see a woman running away from a dog, though she was yelling 'bear!' Before he could react to that, the man in front of him yelled 'Oh God! They're INSIDE ME!' The man started to tear at his skin like he was trying to dig a hole in his arm with his fingernails. When Dick couldn't reason with the man - the look in his eyes familiar somehow - Dick did the next best thing. He knocked the man out cold. At least this way he wouldn't hurt himself.
He turned to run after the woman, but he only made it a few steps before something hit the ground in front of him. A smoke bomb? Green smoke dispersed and there was another nagging 'deja vu' moment for Dick Grayson before he heard someone say his name. He turned to see Rachel knelt over Gar who lay on the ground. Rachel looked at Dick. "How could you do that Dick? You killed him"
"N-No, I didn't. I wouldn't -" But Dick's mind remembered hitting someone. Someone there on the ground. And now that memory went from one swift hit to a serious beating. Flashes of Gar crying out for Dick to stop and pleading rang in his ears.
"You're a monster." Rachel stood, crying, and had hate in her eyes.
Dick didn't say anything, but as Rachel took a step forward, Dick took a step backwards.
"You killed him Dick! You're dangerous! It should have been you!"
Dick's foot caught on the edge of the sidewalk and he fell backwards. As he was falling though, he heard a laugh he'd heard before. It was a familiar one. Something in his mind clicked. He'd smelled that smoke before. He'd felt his heart-racing phenomena before.
Jonathan Crane. Scarecrow.
He'd had enough experience battling Fear Gas before, but he'd been in Madison so long his guard had been down. Dick began to regulate his breathing. She's not real. He's no real. Suddenly there was a car horn and Dick had to use his reflexes to avoid getting run over. Back up on his feet, he turned to see Rachel, but she was gone. 'Gar' was now the previous man who Dick realized must have been under the gas' influence as well.
He turned and looked until his eyes fell on a man dressed in a scarecrow mask. Before he could say anything, Scarecrow yelled out. "This is only the beginning!"
Scarecrow threw another grenade at Dick who caught it and through it into a dumpster where he hoped it would be contained better than out in the open. However, simply doing that meant Crane had escaped.