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Posted by Nightwing
on 9/18/2008, 4:41 pm
98.242.72.252
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He lets rip with the first boomerang, its blade whistles past my head, barely deflected by one of my Escrima sticks. The truth is, his aim took me by surprise, no more so than his anticipation of me deflecting the first attack. Two more boomerangs aim for my lower limbs; I flip gracefully into the air narrowly avoiding both, only to have the first boomerang slice my upper arm upon its return.
Theirs no doubting it anymore, this guy is good. Better than the original, perhaps I shouldn’t have pissed him off so quickly.
I move in close hoping to take away his advantage. The guy’s clearly not a fighter. I read his moves like a slow arcade game, blocking and countering every strike he makes with one of my own. He falls to the floor and I tell myself the fight’s over. That’s when he vanishes; I’ve seen this sort of thing before from Wally and Bart, super speed. Once more I’m surprised as the force knocks me off of my feet, hitting the ground hard; I barely have time to roll to one side as a metallic boomerang slices into the ground.
Instinct and training takes over, as I let fly with one of my metal escrimas. The blunt end hits him square in the nose, breaking the bone on contact. Blood spills from his face and the young lad’s hands try to cover it all in panic. My plan has worked; no hands mean no throwing, no throwing means no boomerangs, and no boomerangs means an easy knock out. I bull rush the guy, knocking him down to the floor, removing the last bit of wind out of his sails, and putting an end to this pointless struggle.
Looking around us, I quickly note that the men that had been standing around Boomerang have already fled. My attention falls back to the broken spirited boy curled up on the ground before me. I reach down and grab the collar of his jacket, looking him square in the eyes, “What the hell was going on here? Tell me! Who are you working for?”
His only answer is to spit the blood that had oozed into his mouth back at me. I jerk away, letting him fall to the ground once more while I wipe my face clean. Slowly I walk to the other side of the alley and slide down the wall, coming to a sitting position. It isn’t until now that I realize the fight had taken a lot out of me. This kid has potential to be amazing; it’s a shame he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“Did your father teach you to throw boomerangs like that?”
The kid lifts himself up high enough to look back at me, annoyance evident on his face, “Nah. Just something that came to me naturally.”
I rub my shoulder where the boomerang had torn through my suit and drawn blood, “I have to admit kid, you’re good.”
He snickers and shakes his head, “Not good enough apparently.”
Carefully, the new Captain Boomerang finds his way to his feet, and rests against the wall. I keep a close watch over his movement in case he wants to go for round two. He wipes the blood from his nose, and looks back at me, “I’ve never missed before. I’ve fought a lot of guys, some really strong guys who though they could bully me, and I never missed; not once. What makes you so damn special? You a freakin’ meta?”
A small giggle escapes beneath my breath, “Hardly. Let’s just say I’ve spent more than my fair share of time in a leotard.”
His face wrinkles up and a big smile appears on his face, “You telling me I just got whooped by some tipsy toes hopping ballerina?”
This time I laugh heavily, scaring the younger guy, “What? Dude, hell no! Gymnastics is my thing these days, but I grew up in a circus, and that’s where I learned to be so nimble. That was before my family died. It took me years to get back on a tight rope and wire.”
I pause for a second and realize that I was pouring my heart out to some punk I had just beaten the snot out of. What was next? Relationship problems?
“Not sure why I even said that. Doubt a punk like you even cares about others. You are a criminal after all.”
The kid had been looking down for several minutes, as if in a heavy thought. I stand once more and begin to walk towards him. He looks back up at me, sorrow in his eyes, and I immediately pause. Boomerang opens his mouth, as if he’s going to say something, and then looks back down. Under his breath, I hear him speak once more, “My family is dead too…”
“You mean, your dad…?”
He nods, never returning his gaze to mine. I rub the back of my head and let my fingers slide through my hair. Suddenly I feel bad for the kid, even if he did try to kill me, “So that’s why you took on the mantle? Some kind of tribute to your dad?”
Finally, he raises his head back up as tears form in his eyes, “Some tribute huh? I can’t even beat a powerless chump like you, what do I expect to do if I come across someone like Superman?”
I shake my head and put my hand on his shoulder, “Dude, are you kidding me? I’ve fought your father before and he never got that close to beating me. You’re good,” I recall the battle we had just fought and the moment in which he had disappeared. “You can move faster than the eye can sense. I’ve only ever seen a handful of people who could do that. Do you know anything about the speed force?”
The expression on his face gives me the answer before he ever speaks, “No clue. I don’t even mean to do that crap. It just happens sometimes by accident. I’ve never been able to do it for more than a few seconds.”
“You might want to look into it. If there were a way for you to gain control of that power, you’d be a lot closer to giving Superman a run for his money,” I reach into my belt and find my grapple gun. “It isn’t any of my business kid, but maybe you’ve got the wrong idea on how to commemorate your dad’s life. You ever think that maybe he’d want you to make something more out of yourself rather than trudge through the lifestyle that plagued his life?”
He shakes his head, “You talking about me becoming some kind of cape? You can forget it. No way, no how!”
I fire the grapple gun and turn to leave, “Just a thought.”
Before I can press the button to ascend back into the night sky, Boomerang calls back to me, slightly confused, “Wait, you’re just leaving? You normally just beat up the bad guy and leave them to run free again?”
Looking back over my shoulder, I flash a knowing smile, “You’re the first. Think of it as a favor for kicking your butt so hard.” I hit the trigger on the gun and begin to fly towards the roof. As I disappear out of sight, I yell back down, “Think about what I said, kid and try to stay out of trouble!”
I can only imagine the confusion on his face as I make my way across the rooftops and back to the cave. My own expression shifts as I think back over the last twenty four hours of my life. What a weird day…
***TBC***
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