Fall of Justice

Bazooka

Floodlights pierced the falling rain, the alarm rose and fell into the night, police cruisers crowded the shattered gates-- their red and blue lights beating against the metal spears that marked the entrance to Arkham.

Kara saw it dissolving behind her, she heard their voices all at once, orders being given, yes sirs and no sirs, like one big jumble of sound. Her hearing had been subdued in Arkham, walls and doors between every resident. Out here there was nothing to stop it all from flooding in. She had learned to control it before but now there was no stopping it. For control she needed concentration but there was no time, she had to keep running.

She found an alley, a dark corner away from the bright tangerine glow of the Gotham streetlights. Though the rain had no effect on her, she shivered. Her skin was crawling, her hands trembling. Everything she had grown into over the past few years, her strength, her pride, her independence, stripped from her, undone by madness. Pathetic and alone, weak and hopeless, she shrunk into herself, crumbling to the ground, her back against the quiet corner by a vomit stained dumpster. The words danced in her mind, the ones she dreaded above all others, the words that, at the start of her time as Supergirl, meant failure and shame, words she would never have uttered in the most dire situation, help me, she thought.

"Kara?"

She turned to find a silhouette of a man. He stepped into the light. Nightwing.

"What're you doing here?" she asked.

"I was coming to visit you at Arkham... bit late I guess," he said, giving her a hand up.

"It's the middle of the night."

"Well, I'm not Daywing..." he paused for laughter, there wasn't any. "Um... What happened?"

"I was attacked," she said.

"Shit. Come on," he said, "Let's get out of here, we'll go to Bruce's, or Clark's, figure what's happening."

"I need to find Joker."

"That's the plan."

"You want to put him away, it doesn't work, he just comes back. We have to stop it. Stop him."

"You're not a killer, don't forget that because of one madman--"

"I killed an orderly... I didn't want to but he was... there was something making him come after me... his eyes glowed green."

"Then it wasn't your fault, you were defending yourself, it doesn't make you a murderer."

"I didn't have to kill him..." she said, Nightwing said nothing. "I'm going to kill Joker, you can come with me, but don't don't stand against me," she said. The feeling of helplessness that had overcome her now buried beneath the determination and anger that burned beneath her skin. She marched past him-- he gripped her arm.

"Whoa, hey, hold on a second, let's talk about this..."

"Get your hand off me," she said, he did.

"I don't want to fight. I just think you need some time."

She marched on, out of the alley and into the street. She stopped in her tracks. Batman stood in front of her, his body wrapped in armor like she had never seen.

"What took you so long?" Nightwing said behind them.

"You were stalling me?" Kara's anger boiled into rage.

"No," said Batman. "We want to help."

She felt Batman's eyes looking down to her, like a judge to a junkie. She faced him. "You caused this. You could have ended it before it began. You let him go. Even after what he did to..." the words get caught in her throat.