trying my best
Rory woke up with a weird taste in her mouth. She couldn’t place it but her instincts told her something had happened. Rory went to get out of bed and felt all of her muscles ache. God, she hated working in the heat. She would not be going out tonight. The smell of breakfast dragged her out of bed and into the living room where Jemma was sitting on the couch, coffee in hand, watching the news.
“I made you pancakes,” Jemma said, greeting Rory with a smile. Rory mumbled something close to a thank you and took the plate from the table. She sat down on the couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table. Not bothering to get cutlery, she picked the pancake up with her hands and folded it in half. She stuffed as much as she could in her mouth.
The woman on the news droned on and on about the various crimes that occurred overnight. She eventually covered the fire that Rory investigated. Police reports that it was an electrical fire and would not be ruled as suspicious. Rory snorted.
A week later, the weather cooled down, marginally. Rory sat on her roof looking out over the city, her new favourite thing to do. She could see a good portion of the city and had memoried some of it. Considering she was going to be here for a little while longer, she may as well familiarise herself with the city.
Rory found that if you look beneath the rough, grimy exterior, Gotham could be quite beautiful. The architecture of some parts was exquisite, once again ignoring certain parts. Every once in a while, you’d come across a hole in the wall cafè that made the best sandwiches and gave you complimentary coffees.
Her illusion was broken when yet another explosion rang out in the balmy night air. She looked over to see a building consumed in flame and a few billows of smoke.
After that first building came down, there had been at least one a night. The buildings ranged from labs to abandoned warehouses. She’d seen glimpses of the Bats when she went to help but hadn’t spoken to any since Signal.
Rory swiftly went down the fire escape and into the apartment through the window.
“Dinner’s almost ready.” Jemma didn’t look up as she stirred a pot that would feed much more than the two of them.
Rory stopped, feeling a slight pang of guilt. “Save me some?”
Jemma sighed but nodded, still not looking up. Rory watched her for a second, letting the guilt consume her. She shook it off and turned to her room. She picked up her suit and went back out the window.
It was a matter of minutes before Rory arrived at the burning building. She surveyed the scene for a moment before webbing her way up to the adjacent building. The flames hadn’t made it to the roof but the windows were long gone and they licked the sides of the building.
Rory stood and listened for a few seconds. No heartbeats. There was no one in the building or they had already met their fate. No point in risking it and going in, Rory thought to herself.
Her eyes flicked up and scanned the rooftops before she even realised why.
Red Robin was standing on the roof on the other side of the burning building. His grappling hook was fastened to the edge of the building and his knees were bent, preparing to swing in through the window.
Rory yelled, but he didn’t hear over the crackling of the fire. She waved her arms but he was too focused. Rory watched as he swung into the building. Concern for him swirled inside her, but she refused to show anything but annoyance.
She swung into the window on her side and quickly negotiated her way to Red Robin.
“What’re you doing?” Redback asked, her annoyed tone strong, even with the modulator. Red Robin stood still, staring for a second or two before responding.
“What does it look like?” He tried to push past her into the hallway but Redback grabbed his arm with maybe a bit too much pressure.
“There’s no one inside,” she said, pulling him toward the window. She slung a web out the window and attached it to the building in front of her. With a bit of a jump, she pulled herself and Red Robin onto the other building. She deposited him near the edge and began to stalk away, not looking back.
“Wait,” he called out behind her. “Where are you going?”
Redback still didn’t look back. “Home. Got a problem?”
“No, I just…How did you get here so quickly?” He asked, taking a step closer to her.
This again. God, it’s like they’re reading off a script. ‘How did you get here so fast?’ Next it’s going to be, ‘so did you set this building on fire to look like a good person?’
Redback huffed out a breath and spun around to face him. She stuck out an accusatory finger and took slow steps towards him.
“I’ve just saved you the trouble of going through that building and possibly getting yourself hurt. Most people say thank you.”
There was a moment of silence and Redback dropped her hand, letting it hang limply at her side.
“And how do you know there’s nobody inside?” Red Robin asked, slightly indignant.
Redback brings her hand back up and gestures to her ear. “Heard it.”
The only noise in the night air was the crackle of the fire behind Red Robin. The flames backlit him, casting his face in shadow. Redback thought for a moment that revealing she had supernatural hearing was saying too much, but then she thought back to all the times she had used super strength. If they hadn’t figured out she wasn’t wholly human, they were a bit thick.
Red Robin hummed, and Redback couldn’t figure out if he was expecting that or not. She hummed back in response and turned back around. He took a few steps in pursuit so Redback, once again, turned to face him.
“You wanna back off, or what? I’m not interested in playing you stupid game,” Redback snapped, meeting him head on. Red Robin stood his ground and opened his mouth to speak. The hairs on the back of Rory’s neck rose. On instinct, her arms flew out, pushing Red Robin back. He landed on his back with a soft thud. Without time to move herself, Rory got flung sideways, landing on the roof with a not so soft thud. She lifted her head, vision swimming, and was met with a yellow vehicle. She stood up on shaky feet, her whole body swaying.
“The fuck…,” she muttered as she took in the sight of a school bus sitting on the roof barely two yards away. On the right side of the bus, Red Robin was standing and looking at the school bus with a similar look of confusion. Redback watched as he made his way around the bus, analysing it from every angle. When Red Robin was around the back of the bus, tingles made their way up her arms from her fingertips.
“Red Robin?” Rory took wary steps around the bus until Red Robin was in sight. She took one more step before a portal opened behind him. Startled, Red Robin pivoted on the balls of his feet with his staff outstretched.
“Wait,” Rory called out, but it was too late. She watched as Red Robin swept the Spot’s feet out from under him. With a swift blow to the chest from the end of Red Robin’s staff, the Spot flew backwards over the edge of the roof.
Rory lunged forward and dived, extending her hand in an attempt to catch him before it was too late. Dangling over the edge, she caught his wrist. With her other hand, she stuck to the roof as best she could to prevent them from sliding over.
“Let go.” His voice was so calm, so certain, that Rory very nearly did. Her eyebrows shot up and her mouth hung open slightly. She looked down at him, disbelief etched onto her face. After a second or two, Rory realised he couldn’t see her face.
“What?! Are you nuts?” She made an effort to pull him up, doing just enough to shift from her stomach to her knees. Satisfied she wasn’t going to be pulled over as well, she gripped his wrist with both hands. Rory made another attempt to pull him up, but he was surprisingly heavy for his size and gravity wasn’t helping.
Just when she was about to ask Red Robin for help, her eyes got caught on her fingertips and the sound died in her throat. The tips of her fingers had turned an unblemished white. The longer she stared, the further it crept up her hands until it snaked its way under her suit and she couldn’t see it any longer.
Even without eyes, Rory could tell the Spot’s gaze was fixed on the same thing. The longer they stared, the Spot started to struggle in her grip. To no avail though, her grip like a vice.
Rory’s vision started to swim and the edges went black. A small pool of panic started to build in her stomach.
The longer she held on, the more of her sight was consumed by darkness. She kept trying to heave the Spot back onto the safety of the roof but was failing miserably. If anything, her grip was slipping. It almost felt like there was no friction on his skin.
Her ability to see rapidly fading, she craned her neck to look back at Red Robin.
“Why are you just standing there?” Her voice was weak but it worked all the same. Red Robin rushed over and knelt beside her. His hand reached down and Rory felt as if the building was swaying in the wind. Her grip loosened and the last thing she saw before the blackness washed over her was the Spot plummeting down to the unforgiving earth.
Rory dreamt of a man that looked like Captain America.
He wore blue and had the same voice as Steve. He was young though, younger than Steve by quite a while.
The woman he spoke to was a stranger to Rory but she could easily see they were siblings. What they spoke about was foreign and Rory only caught every second word.
This Steve lookalike rolled his eyes, clearly not pleased. But his complaints abruptly stopped as he stared across the room. Straight at Rory.