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Tim Drake/Red Robin ([info]bloodred_robin) wrote in [info]dc_nextgen,
@ 2010-03-22 19:27:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current location:Star City
Entry tags:npc - mia dearden, npc - tim drake, plot - "mad world"

A Night in the Big City
He drives the bike into the alley and kicks the stand down, preparing himself mentally for what he'll find. He's been in town two weeks, and the killings have already started. He was hoping to see Mia, to talk to her before this got too far, but the fourth dead prostitute in as many weeks has pushed itself to the forefront of his priorities. Someone needed to understand why everything was happening the way it was, and, though he'd never admit it, Tim wants to talk to someone that will understand why he's going to kill the monster doing this when he finds him.

Someone who knows him has to be able to explain to Bruce and Dick why he broke their cardinal rule.

He steps off the bike, pulls a grappling gun from his utility belt, aiming it skyward. He fires, and the gas-powered line shoots straight up the side of the three-story building, catching itself on the the lip of the roof. He gives the line two good tugs, and finds it stable. The building he needs to get to is three blocks away, and crawling with reporters, police and gawkers, all wanting a piece of the story. His thoughts abruptly shift to someone else, and he forces them away, not wanting to follow the thoughts to their conclusion. He doesn't want to think of how he found The Artist's first victim, which is the same way he will find the current one.

He climbs the roof, thinking about each step in succession as he pulls himself upward, counting the steps so as not to think of how he's failed to save these women from a mad man. Each one is like a knife in his guts, and those are only the ones he knows of. Tim wonders how many more have been killed because he let this man escape him? 

Once he's on the rooftop, he begins his run toward the 8th Street Motel, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. This is not Gotham, not his city, but he respected Oliver Queen, Roy Harper, Connor Hawke and Mia Dearden. He still respects all of them, and this psycho came here to continue his work.

Red Robin will not let him finish it.





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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 12:59 am UTC (link)
Red Arrow was on her patrol for the evening. Unaware that Red Robin was in also on the prowl for the same thing that she was- The Artist. She couldn't let him get away with what he was doing. She'd been close to catching him a couple of times...but he's managed to slip away each time she's gotten near.

When she spotted Red Robin on the rooftop, she changed her course, landing on the rooftop behind him silently, drawing her bow and knocking an arrow.

"Freeze."

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 01:28 am UTC (link)
Damnit.

He doesn't move one bit, to his credit, standing as still as a statue with nothing but the night air between them. He supposed he couldn't get lucky enough to pull Roy or Connor being in Star City.

"We really don't have time for this." he says, his voice sounding like gravel in a blender.

"How about you go your way, I go mine, and we pretend we never saw each other?" he says. He doesn't want to hurt anyone except the Artist tonight, but if Dudley-Do-Wrong here can't take a hint and get lost...well, he needs to work out frustration somewhere.

He listens for a response, a shifting of movement, anything that will give him an idea of who is enemy is. He already knows this person has training, from how they've caught him off-guard.

He did help with that by being distracted in the first place, however.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 01:34 am UTC (link)
Her grip on the bow tightened, as she pulled back on the bowstring. "I'm afraid I can't allow that," she said, her tone flat and cold.

There is something oddly familiar about him..but she can't place her finger on it.

And she's not going to take any chances, damnit. For all she knows, he could be the Artist himself, standing right in front of her.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 01:42 am UTC (link)
Red Robin doesn't consider for one moment that this could be the Artist behind him. He knows the man's M.O. and a straight-out fight would only come after he's had a chance or three to gloat about how much smarter he is than everyone around him. Typical narcissistic behavior of a socio-sadist.

Whoever this is, though, obviously has him pegged as one of the bad guys.

Wait...this person can't possibly think...?

He hears the slightest rustle of fabric on armor, and the drawing of a string, and realizes he'll be dead in seconds if that arrow fires.

"I'm not who you think I am." he says, lowering his arms slowly, and deftly working a disc free of his glove. He's only going to have one shot at this, and if he botches it, he's a dead man.

"If you're after who I think you're after...I've seen him. Let's talk this out before you make a mistake." he says.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 01:47 am UTC (link)
Actually, it's only a taser arrow. But he doesn't need to know that.

"Really? And I should believe you because you've got a good upstanding moral character or some other crap like that?"

Maybe he's not the Artist.

Doesn't mean that he's still freaking Superman or something.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 01:57 am UTC (link)
Cassandra wouldn't take this crap. He'd already know how to take them down and be halfway through doing it by now, if she'd been caught at all. Dick would have either talked them down or knocked them out.

Bruce would never have put himself in this position.

"I don't care why you believe it, just that you do and go on your way, lady." he says.

In one motion, he leaps to his left and tosses the disk with his right hand, using the half-second of sight on his attacker to a) see who he's dealing with definitively and b) throw her off-balance, if he can.

He hits the floor and rolls, hoping that whoever this woman is isn't nearly as good as Mia or any of the other arrows. He might even tell Mia about her, so Mia can kick her ass.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 02:07 am UTC (link)
She let go of the arrow as he tossed the disk, and the arrow made contact, sending the disk flying backward.

She knocked another arrow in her bow in a quick, fluid motion. She pulled back on the bowstring, sending a net arrow right at him.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 02:22 am UTC (link)
His arm drops down to his belt, instinctively grabbing a flash-bang grenade from his belt. She lets the arrow fly, and he rolls again, tossing the grenade in the space between them. He taps a button on the underside of his glove, and shades drop over the eyelids of his mask, to keep out the glare from the impending flash.

The sound is going to hurt a bit, but he'll take it if slows this impostor down. Granted, she moves a lot like Mia, which makes him wonder if she'll be too upset with him for defending himself against her trigger (or in this case, arrow) happy apprentice.

He rolls to a standing position, and whips pulls a small cylinder from his cape. The metallic bo-staff extends almost immediately, and Tim readies himself to charge her. If he doesn't make this a hand-to-hand fight quickly, those arrows will do him in.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 02:55 am UTC (link)
She held up her arm to avoid being completely blinded by the flash, but was still a little dazed.

She steadied herself, looking up to see him getting ready to charge her. She held her bow in a outward position, bracing herself for him to come at her.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 03:03 am UTC (link)
He comes at her, feinting high, then trying to sweep her legs out from under her.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 03:06 am UTC (link)
She's seen that move. She smirked, springing backward into a crouch, using her bow to send it at his chest and force him backward.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 03:14 am UTC (link)
He uses follows her, not letting her get the distance to draw and fire another arrow. He blocks the bow with his staff, pushing it aside and trying for a kick to the chest to take some of the fight out of her.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 03:24 am UTC (link)
The kick knocked her back onto her ass, almost knocking the wind right out of her. She sprung back on her feet, charging at him, aiming a right at his jaw.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 03:29 am UTC (link)
He'd expected her to stop after that, so the right cross to the jaw surprises the crap out of him and knocks him off balance.

He stumbles back a bit, trying to regain his footing before she can press the advantage.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 03:31 am UTC (link)
She'd take that advantage, charging to tackle him to the ground.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 03:36 am UTC (link)
She tackles him to the ground, and lets her, using her momentum drag them both down and try to flip her over him and come up on top of her, if he can.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 03:41 am UTC (link)
She was knocked over onto her back, her hood flying down, revealing her blonde hair. She glared at him, as she shoved her knees up to his stomach, to shove him off of her.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 03:45 am UTC (link)
"Gotcha." he said, grinning. He's about to gloat when he sees the hood comes down, and the blond hair frames her face.

"Mia?!" he says, his eyes going wide. Her knees hit his stomach then, knocking the wind out of him and falls off of her, and onto the ground. The armor takes the edge off the blow, but he's going to have a couple of knee-shaped bruises to along with all the other scars and bruises on his body.

He stares at her for a moment, holding his gut.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 03:52 am UTC (link)
She knew that voice. She paused, staring at him. Then it hit her. She blinked. Once. Twice. Three times.

"Tim?!"

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 03:58 am UTC (link)
He stands up, ignoring the pain in his gut (damn, she could throw those knees) and gathers himself. He might remind her of Batman, the first one, not the recent, with his demeanor.

"I didn't know." he says simply. A lot of things made sense now. Of course she'd be after the Artist. He was in her city, and Tim knew what she was forced to do to survive.

This was probably as personal for her as it was for him.

"The Artist is dangerous, Mia. He kills people and turns it into art. He's a psycho and I'm here to find him and end this." Tim says.

"You look good." he says offhandedly.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 04:04 am UTC (link)
"I wouldn't expect you too," she replied flatly. He'd left seven years ago, after all. How the hell was he supposed to know that she went from Speedy to Red Arrow?

Then again...he wasn't exactly the Robin that she'd been on the Titans with, anymore.

"I know. That's why I'm going to put an end to him. I want that bastard behind bars." No. She wanted him on Death Row. But she wasn't about to tell him that.

"You don't look so bad yourself...where the hell have you been?"

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 04:11 am UTC (link)
Tim keeps his mouth shut for a moment as she speaks. He wants to put an end to The Artist as well, but the end he's thinking vastly differs from Mia's.

Tim wants him dead.

"Away. Things didn't work out, though, so I came back." he says. He could stand there and tell her about the last seven or so years, about the hell he's been through because this madman, but she doesn't need to hear that.

Of course, he was from Gotham City, which is on the opposite side of the country, so she might at least know there was something he wasn't saying.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 04:23 am UTC (link)
He's not telling her something. She can tell just by looking at him.

"Why Star City?" She asked, folding her arms over chest. "Why not just go back home to Gotham?"

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 04:27 am UTC (link)
He crosses his own at the sudden interrogation.

"The Artist is here, not Gotham. Besides, there's nothing for me in Gotham." he says. Yep, he's definitely not telling her something. A LOT of something.

"But don't worry. I'll find who I'm looking for and be out of your hair as soon as possible." he says, turning away.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 04:31 am UTC (link)
"Really? You and old man Bats have a spat or something?" No, she's not too crazy about the fact that he's not giving her shit about what he's been up to. OR why he's back.

She walked after him, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "I don't think so. I'm looking for this guy too. You haven't been in Star City in seven years. You don't know it like I do. We work together." And no, it isn't a suggestion.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 04:42 am UTC (link)
"Batman and Nightwing had a spat. Batman and I had a full-blown falling out. I left and we haven't spoken in seven years. You're the second person I've spoken to since I got back. Nightwing was first." he says.

"Speedy, you don't know this guy. He's not just some random killer with a fetish for blonds. He's taking shots at me." Tim says. He doesn't want to involve her, because she's the type he favors.

But she's right. He doesn't know the city like she does, and he's only been here a couple of weeks. If she was hunting for someone in Gotham, he'd insist that she work with him. He has to fight the instinct to attack when she places a hand on his shoulder, but he does so.

"Fine. We work together on this. I'll give you a rundown of the evidence I've got, and we'll see if we can catch him from there.

Meanwhile, maybe you can help me keep some of these reporters off my back. If they think I'm seeing Oliver Queen's daughter, maybe they'll stop asking about Bruce and find someone else to pick on. Damned vultures." Tim says. He'd always hated reporters.

Except for Vicki Vale, they were a nuisance and most of them didn't know when to leave well enough alone.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 04:47 am UTC (link)
She narrowed her eyes at him. "My name is Red Arrow. I haven't been called Speedy for five years. And I've seen the girls that they've been killing. All young. All selling themselves to make it by in this place. Just like I had to. He may be taking shots at you, but I've got a reason for wanting this bastard stopped too."

She nodded. "And I'll help you there." A small smirk crossed her face. "You may want to be careful there, though...I'm one of those damned vultures now."

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 04:53 am UTC (link)
He nods at her chosen name. "Red Arrow, huh? Well, then that makes this easy.

I'm Red Robin." he says, offering a hand.

"And we're going to find this guy and deal with him, once and for all. No one else dies because of this mad man." he says.

"You're...a reporter?" he asks, shock registering on his face. "After all the times we talked about how annoying they are, you went and became one? Ouch, Arrow Girl. Ouch." he grins.

"All right, fine. I've got people camping at my place trying to get a picture of me throwing out trash in my boxers.

How would you like an exclusive with Tim Drake?" he asks.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 05:06 am UTC (link)
"Nice to meet you, Red Robin," she said with a smirk, taking the offered hand.

"You bet your ass we are. Together. You get a lead, I want to know. No ifs, ans, or buts."

She laughed. "The career path struck me as interesting. So sue me."

"I'd love one. Better me than some skinny brunette bimbo trying to get laid."

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-23 05:10 am UTC (link)
"Hm. You sure are demanding for a partner." he says, mock-seriously.

At her final comment, he suppresses a laugh. "There's a comment I could make to that, but I won't."

"Let's get to the crime scene. There are some things you should know about all this."

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-23 05:19 am UTC (link)
"Damn straight I am." A smirk. "I think GA's secretly glad that I mostly fly solo these days."

She nodded. "Right. You can fill me in on the way there."

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-24 01:54 am UTC (link)
Tim would fill Mia in as they made their way to the 8th Street Motel. Less than two blocks from their destination, he would stop and begin looking around.

"The Artist...he leaves a calling card near every victim." Tim says, pulling a couple of photos from a pocket of his utility belt. Mia will see an image of a brick wall, with a graffiti tag on it that reads CO77X.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-25 02:38 pm UTC (link)
Mia flipped through the photos. "I should have caught that. Something about this guy....it just gets to me, what he's doing. Makes me not pay as much attention as I should. I was focusing on tracking him down like an animal would, ignoring the clues right in front of me." She felt stupid now.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-25 11:41 pm UTC (link)
"Don't blame yourself, Mia. This guy is good at what he does. Slade-level good." Tim says, to give her an idea.

"The only reason I'm so familiar with his methods is that I've been tracking him for two years now, and he's been one step ahead of me the whole time. That's too many people I've let down. But with both of us on this, we're not going to let it go on." he says.

He leads her to the motel, and slips inside a window on the side of the building, leading into the room where the call girl was murdered. They find her body, lying on the floor, like the others: posed as though she's pointing to the Northwest while covering her heart. She fits the same description as the other murdered women, and Tim has to fight to keep the anger in his chest from spilling out.

He starts looking for clues, silently, to keep his mind off of things.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-29 01:10 am UTC (link)
Mia sighed, balling up her fists. "It's just...I was like these girls, Tim. I see what this guy's doing to them, and it kills me inside."

Mia slipped after him into the hotel room. The first time she had seen one of the Artist's victims up close and personal, Mia had thrown up. She's since gained a stronger stomach.


She searched for clues, keeping an peeled on the door...just in case.

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-29 01:20 am UTC (link)
Mia will note the CO77X graffiti on the headboard of the bed while Tim is looking elsewhere in the small room. He's trying to find anything that will give them a idea of who this man is, but he listens to Mia talk as he works.

"Mia, you found a way out; you...you can't take their deaths to heart." he says. "You've saved hundreds of lives since, but you know that the first step out of this cycle is finding the courage to accept help. You did that, but not everyone has the strength you do.

Still, it doesn't mean that any woman deserves what the Artist is doing." he says, a note of anger in his voice.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-29 01:29 am UTC (link)
Mia pulled out a tiny camera that she carried in her quiver, snapping a quick picture of the graffiti before stowing it again.

"I know that," she said, "Still...I wish I could help these girls, Tim. I mean, you know I've always done my best to help people that've been in my situation but seeing this...it just makes me wish I could do more."

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-29 01:45 am UTC (link)
Tim takes a couple of photos of his own of the girl, for his own files.

"I know, Mia. We can only do what we can do, though. No one can predict monsters like this coming out of the woodwork." he says.

"This is all we're likely to find tonight. Do you want to come back to my place? There's more information on the case there...and I can show you everything I've collected on the Artist." he says. The second idea doesn't make him comfortable, but if this is going to be a team effort, he knows he's going to have to open up eventually.

About everything.

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[info]redarrowmia
2010-03-29 01:47 am UTC (link)
"You mind if we pick up some Chinese? Much as this stuff makes me sick to my stomach....I have to eat something."

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[info]bloodred_robin
2010-03-29 01:54 am UTC (link)
"Yeah, no problem. There's actually a little place around the corner from where I'm staying that has great Chinese. I thought about asking you to lunch the other day, before...this." he says.

"And I've got beer, and a few other things if you want. Did you bring your bike out tonight or do you need a ride?" he asks.

(Reply to this)(Parent)




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