Not What I Wanted, but You Will Do [ NIGHTWING ]

[cheshire]

The cold wind of the night rushed through the long raven hair of the deranged criminal called Cheshire, as she stood on the roof of a building in New York City. Her eyes where full of anger, raged, and blood for she had come back to the United States to finish the work that she had set out to do, and now to add to the list was to ruin the life of the very man whom she had once loved. The man whom she had had a daughter with, a daughter she that she didn’t know where her wear about where at the current moment, but she was sure going to find out; even if she had to tear apart this city brick by brick.

Cheshire was many things; a master assassin, master of poisons, and one crazy woman. What most people didn’t know was she loved her children, not more than herself because that would just be silly but she loved them second as much. If you threaten her children you might as well go out and buy your grave, for you wouldn’t live much longer after that. Things where worse now, for her son Tom; the child she had had with Catman; was dead. Lian was the only child she had left, and she wasn’t about to let Roy; Lian’s father; or anyone else take her away from Cheshire now.

So now Cheshire was back and was ready for blood, and the first blood she wanted was Roy. He had turned on her again, and she would swear it was the last time he ever would. Cheshire had been sent to a prison that Roy later had to come and put down a rebellion that Cheshire had nothing to do with. She had pleaded with him to let her escape but he hadn’t, he had turned his back on her and that will no cost him his life. But first she will cause him to feel the pain and hurt that he had put her through, she would ruin his life to the point that he would wish for her to kill him, and in the end she would grant that request; though it would be a very long and painful death.

The only problem was she didn’t know where Roy was at the moment, but that really didn’t worry Cheshire for she knew how to go about drawing him out. All she would have to do was cause a little trouble and do a little hunting, sooner or later Roy would come out of hiding. The only real trouble was deciding what to do in order to draw him out; there were always the good old killing random people.

Cheshire smiled as she looked down from the two story building, below her was two tugs going through a purse that they had just snatched. What a perfect target to start out with, though many would see it as she was punishing them for stealing. Truth was she didn’t care if they stole purses, or candy from babies, it was the mere fact that they were now standing below her and she needed bodies, and those two would be perfect to start with.

Slipping back into the shadows, Cheshire sneak off her perch and down into the shadows of the ally, the two men too busy in their work that they didn’t pay attention to someone creeping up on them. It wasn’t what one would consider a fair fight, in fact there would be no fairness to it but that’s what life was.

Standing in the shadows Cheshire looked at the two men before her, trying to decided how she wanted to go about killing them. She didn’t want to fight two on one, not because she couldn’t but because she didn’t feel like it. Not to mention she wanted one of them to scream, she wanted them to cause as much noise as possible to draw someone here. So maybe it was best she stayed hidden for now anyway.
With a twisted grin that Cheshire was famous for, she pulled two poison knives from her long green boots. This was going to get her the reaction that she wanted, they would scream in pain, shout in terror, scream louder when the poison entered the blood, and than they would die. If they died too soon than she would just have to find another victim, but with hope she will draw the person she was looking for with this first attack.

Cheshire took one knife in her left and another in her right, looking at her targets she slowed her breathing; to the point she almost stop; while she took aim with the knife in her right hand. With a quick flick of her wrist and move of her air she threw the knife, than taking the other out of her left hand Cheshire quickly aimed and threw the knife at the other man. Each knife hit their assigned target, one in the shoulder and one in the leg, for she had not want to kill them too quickly.

For a moment the two men just looked at each other, than at the knives sticking out of their bodies; too shocked to do anything. Than the burning started, and soon the screams; this caused Cheshire to grin wider as she leaned against the wall in the shadows and waited for one of the two outcomes.

[grayson]

Even as big as New York City was one might be stark surprised at few screams there were in the city by night compared to Gotham. The big apple's population dwarfed Gotham's but it's crime rate was dwarfed by Gotham's , Dick Grayson had spent enough time in both places as well as Bludhaven to know the differences in the dirty streets, metaphorically speaking. And even if he hadn't been with only 3 blocks when the screams pierced the night air they still would have been hard to miss. The night seemed quiet so far. The sudden screams of pain that pierced the air sounded more than terrified, they sounded like their heart was about to stop, as though they were on fire from one end of the body to the other. It sounded like more than one to which brought the masked vigilante and former boy wonder bounding across the rooftops with rapid acrobatic maneuvers to close the gap.

Tucked into a double somersault as he leapt from ther final rooftop and shot a grappling hook that allowed him to swing his way down, Nightwing's eyes narrowed behind the nightvision lenses in the mask covering his eyes. Panicked screams from knives sticking out of one man's shoulder and the other man's leg. The attack was too simple to be random and they looked to be in more pain than a couple of victims who had been stabbed, the color was quickly draining out of their faces. Whoever was behind this couldn't have fled the area that quickly. The power of deductive reasoning, fueled by placing a hand over their hearts and to their wrists indicated weak pulses and irregular heartbeats. More than being stabbed, they seemed sick. or worse...

Poisoned

There was a faint odor of it in the air, one that only someone as well trained to pick up on such small details, such as a former police officer or the first partner of the world's greatest detective would pick up on. His stomach started to turn as he pieced it all together. A familiar M.O. if memory served. This was more than random, he was being watched and drawn out but if his hunch was right the assailant was probably expecting someone else to arrive. Tough He focused on the victims, already digging through his gauntlets for some sort of antidote but had his ears figuratively to the ground, ready for the assassin to make his...or rather her next move.

[cheshire]

Cheshire didn't have long to wait before she heard the sounds she had been waiting for. Running feet on the rooftop and the sound of a grappling hook being fired into a wall, someone had come to save the men she was killing. A moment later the form of a man landed in the ally way where the men were now laying in pain, wishing for death she was sure. It didn't take Cheshire long to realize who she had in front of her, it was no one less than Nightwing; Roy's best friend and a man who had been a thorn in her own side. It was Nightwing who had convice Roy that Cheshire wasn't good for him and that he should keep Lian away from her. Even though it wasn't Roy, like she had hoped, Nightwing was the next best thing and she could have a lot of fun with him.

For a moment Cheshire was watching Nightwing, she knew he was listing and was waiting for her to make a move. She wasn't for sure if he could see her, though she was sure if he had spotted her he would have been reacting to her presents already. Instead he started to look through is little bag, she was sure he was looking for something to save the two men whom she had poisoned. So Cheshire had only a small window of opportunity in order to try and neutralize him; in order to get some answers from him. The problem was Nightwing was a bat brat, which lead to complications; such as being able to hear the smallest of noises and moved quicker than bum faced with shampoo.

Deciding on an idea, in order to hopefully confuse Nightwing into believing he was under a different kind of danger, Cheshire pulled out a gun and another knife. She knew he was listening and if she threw the knife he would hear it sailing through the air at him. But if she shot at him as well, maybe she would be able to hit him with the knife since he would be busy avoiding the bullet. So with the gun in her left hand, and her knife in the other, Cheshire cocked the hammer of the gun and aimed the knife. With a slight squeeze on the trigger and a flick of the wrist, a bullet went off toward Nightwing, on his left side and the knife was aimed to hit him somewhere on his right.

[grayson]

The sound of the gun being cocked, hammer being pulled back took the former boy wonder off his game just enough to cause a problem. Luckily he had found what he needed to administer to the 2 victims but cuffing them and gift wrapping them for the P.D. would have to wait. It would take them time to get their bearings straight and by then hopefully he could make them the center of his attention once more. Right now he had more imminent and dangerous issues of his own to deal with.

Confusion seemed to fit the m.o. of whoever was placing him under attack in addition to the other two victims. The gun wasn't normally Cheshire's traditional style to the best of his knowledge and so he thought little more about her as she backflipped to evade the bullets right in the nick of time. It was Cheshire and she was clearly going out of her way to mess with his mind. The time it took him to administer a cure for the creeps had taken too much time and given her time to improvise. When he dodged the bullet he leaped right into the path of the knife and had no time to pull back before the sharp blade sliced open the kevlar costume and grazed his right leg in mid-flip. It was burning as quickly as Nightwing landed. It wouldn't take long for it to overwhelm him. His eyes were starting to blur and his time of searching for another antidote would leave too large a window of opportunity for Cheshire to strike again.

The vigilante had no choice but to brace himself, straddling the fallen victims he'd saved and waited for Jade to show herself. "We both know who and what you're after lady so cut to the chase and show yourself so I can hand you over to the police and we can all call it a night. Cool with you?" He grunted, squinting behind his mask trying to block out the wave of dizziness and stay standing upright.

[cheshire]

Cheshire could tell as she cocked the gun that she was throwing Nightwing off his game, she wasn't playing her normal game that she did, but she wasn't herself anymore. She had changed and she was worse than she was before, and people where going to find out just how bad she could be. Nightwing was able to administer the two victims antidotes before the bullet left the gun, she didn't really care because those two men were not what she as after. She was after a little dickey bird tonight, and she was about to catch one in her sights.
Cheshire watched, as if it wall all slow motion, as Nightwing did a back flip out of the way of the bullets; like she knew he would. Than the knife quickly, and quietly, sailing through the air and right into the target. It didn't matter it didn't hit him anywhere that would kill him quickly, cause for Cheshire that didn't matter. The knife had a deadly poison on it, and that poison would kill him in time; if she let it anyway.

Even from where she was standing, Cheshire could see the look on Nightwing's face as he looked down at the knife. She couldn't help but let her smile creep across her face, slowly but bright, for she had won this round and she knew it. She watched as he stumbled a little, for he had gotten a strong serving on her favorite poison, well her favorite this week that is. There was a chance he had a way to battle the poison but she had other blades with other poisons that she could and would use to get what she wanted, but maybe this would do enough to render him unable to do anything else.

Cheshire watched as Nightwing tried to brace himself, and ended up straddling the two victims, he was looking around for her now. "I don't think that will be wise, for I'm the only one that can save your life right now." Cheshire answered, bluffing she was sure because she didn't know if he could cure himself or not. Deciding it was time to come out of hiding, and since he was starting to become harmless. "Low and behold I set my trap to catch a Red Arrow and instead I catch a bat brat, what a pleasure to see you again Nightwing." Oh the joy of seeing the pain in the eyes of the great Nightwing; the first robin of the great big batman.