Colin (Ford) Murphy ✖ Dick Grayson (formerrobin) wrote in thereincarnates, @ 2012-03-15 16:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | colin ford |
Who. Colin Ford
What. An explosion in Gotham triggers some unpleasant memories
Where. Gotham, NJ
When. Thursday night, March 15th 2012
Warnings. Mild violence and the usual dosage of Robin angst
It had been quiet. Too quiet. After the devastating attack on the city of Boston, the silence that followed had been deafening. The storm hadn't hit yet, that was only the first wave. The first of many. But it had been enough to shake nearly everyone to their core, and Colin was no exception.
"Anybody ever teach you to share the wealth?" The masked thug Colin had dropped down on from behind turned on him as soon as the vigilante opened his mouth, the thug's arms full with bags of money and Colin grinned behind his mask. "My god man, there are starving children in Africa! And people call me a Dick."
He laughed at his own pun, but the guy just stared at him blankly and Colin and Dick both sighed inwardly. "Still not appreciated in my own time, it's pretty tragic. ... Eh, oh well." Without warning, he pulled his arm back and punched the guy hard in the face. The thug went sprawling across the tiled floor of the bank, which had been closed to the public for hours now, but apparently this guy and a few of his friends had taken that as a personal invitation. And, just as expected, soon after the sound of his punch was done resonating through the room, the sounds of hurried footsteps getting louder told Colin that his 'friends' were on their way to pick up the fight. The reincarnate of Nightwing sighed heavily, bracing himself for the inevitable.
The others barely lasted two minutes.
---
It was raining hard. Does it ever not rain, here? Dick and Colin were running in the direction of the sirens. With the bank robbers all tied up with nowhere to go but GCPD, the vigilantes were free as birds again. It sounded like trouble downtown (there was always trouble downtown), so they were in a hurry. Well, Dick was. Colin just needed a distraction. Several distractions, actually. He was worried about Emma, about the rest of his team mates, about his family. About Jace. It was no small wonder how Dick and Colin were the worry warts of the group, someone in their lives was always in some sort of trouble. Not that Dick never got into trouble, but he was the all grown up Robin in his big boy pants. He had to look out for them - for everyone - in case no one else would.
Unfortunately for Colin, that over protective big brother act hadn't lessened any between lives.
His feet hit the pavement one after the other with a loud slapping sound, running full speed down alley after alley towards the growing sirens. The blues and blacks of his costume hid him well in the darkness, allowing him to dash unnoticed through the back streets until he reached his destination. His breathing was labored and shallow, muscles tight and strained to capacity underneath the fabric of his already skin tight suit, but he didn't stop. It wasn't in them to stop, no matter how much it hurt.
Will I ever be as good as new?
---
It had been a year and two months since his accident. Tenth months and some odd weeks since he'd woken up from his coma to find that in just four months time the world had gone and changed on him, and his best friend had never woken up. Thinking about Juliet still lying lifeless in her hospital bed made Colin's throat clench up even now. ... Not lifeless, she wasn't dead, but the Juliet Pierce that he'd known? In life she'd been so full, so vibrant - anything less than that felt like she'd already gone and died on him. Just one of the many people Colin hadn't been able to save. Sometimes he wasn't sure how Dick could live with that kind of guilt day in and day out.
One of these days you're gonna have to forgive yourself, you know.
"Fat chance," Colin grunted under his breath, finally coming to a sharp stop around a corner once he caught sight of the fire. It had already taken most of the building, all four stories of it engulfed in flames, but he could still hear shrieks coming from the second floor.
Everything happened all at once.
---
Colin immediately launched his body across the street, not exactly thinking it through, but he knew he had to do something. He was only half way across when the whole thing exploded, and his body was blown backwards from the blast back into the alley he'd burst out of. He hit the ground hard, became disoriented, ears ringing so loudly it blocked out the sound of the fire engine sirens as they finally pulled up moments too late. Where was he? For a moment Juliet's terrified face flashed in front of him, the last thing he'd seen before he'd thrown his body over hers as the building around them exploded. A building not unlike this one.
He couldn't find the strength to push himself up, his body aching in parts that sometimes he was convinced never fully healed after his accident. Phantom injuries, they called them. Even long after they were healed, victims of intense trauma might still feel a painful twinge from time to time, when something reminds them of what they're constantly working to suppress. Clean bill of health? Bullshit.
Dick was ordering him to get back up and go, they had to get out of there, but Colin couldn't stop picturing his friend's face and he was still partially deaf, he could barely hear his own heart thudding in his chest. He lay there in the alley until his vision started to darken, going in and out until he finally slipped blissfully into oblivion until some time later.