Baltimore, and the dorms, Wednesday Evening
When Blossom came to, her head was pounding and she took a moment to just hold it. "T.K.?" She called out, hoping for at least a groan in response. Nothing. A little louder: "Dinah?!"
Right, okay. Two discoveries: No Dinah, and yelling made her head hurt worse. As soon as it dulled back down to just thudding, she looked over to where she'd seen Dinah fall. For some crazy reason, she didn't expect Dinah to be gone, but since Blossom knew her teammate wouldn't just leave...she totally had to be prisoner somewhere!
Now she was even madder at herself. She was supposed to be a better hero than this.
"Ow ow ow!" Bruised and battered from the smack down she'd gotten, Blossom was slow in getting to her feet. When she did, she accidentally knocked aside the gas grenade she'd landed on. She squatted back down to look at it and could almost swear Professor Gibbs was standing over her shoulder, staring at her, reminding her of the fact that this was now a crime scene so Blossom gathered any evidence she could find and streaked off back for campus, to the dorms. Dinah had said who to go to if something happened to her or went wrong, and boy was this wrong, so battered and bruised, she floated outside his window and tapped to get his attention.
"Priestly?! Open up! Something's happened!"
Priestly Okay, so girls showing up at his window was definitely a new experience for Priestly. He took a quick moment to stare in befuddlement before he opened the window.
"Get in. What happened?" This was the girl Dinah was going crime fighting with, so he naturally checked behind her. "Where's Dinah?"
Blossom That's what I'm trying to tell you," Blossom started talking as soon as she got her head through the window. "We hadn't even started anything! We just got into town and someone started shooting! And suddenly there was gas everywhere and Dinah went down. Then this lady shows up in a gas mask and a totally ugly outfit and says I'm a problem and we fight but she was too fast and kept standing on my yo-yo and kicking me and when I woke up, Dinah was gone!"
She was mad about losing the fight as well as upset about Dinah being missing, so it was not surprising if he didn't follow all of that.
Priestly He made a valiant effort at it, at least.
"Dinah's gone?" Words he never wanted to hear. "Like -- missing gone, right? Like we can find her." That was very important. "Wait, are you okay?"
Blossom Blossom's head was still pounding, bruises were forming all over, and her jaw would be very sore for a few days, but that didn't really matter right now. "My costume absorbed a lot of the blows," she shrugged, taking a deep steadying breath to calm down before pulling out what looked to be bags of candy from her pockets.
"And sorry. Yes, she's been kidnapped, I'm sure of it! We were ambushed with some sort of gas, not guns or anything. And the villain seemed to know Dinah but didn't really care about me until I got her mad and she had to knock me out. I found these at the scene when I woke up." She held out her makeshift 'evidence' bags holding the two grenades, pieces of the villain's gas mask, and Dinah's mask. "Dinah and the villain were both gone."
Did Blossom need to answer the part about finding her? Really?
Priestly Priestly was feeling like a very bad Sous as he looked at the bits of "evidence" in the bag. He had no idea what they meant beyond what Blossom had already determined.
"Right. So we've gotta -- Tony!" Yeah, 'cause that made sense. "He's got all kindsa magicy stuff. He might have a locator spell or something."
Blossom Okay, so Blossom wasn't expecting him to be the Professor or Ken and know automatically what to do? But she was totally not expecting him to suggest magic. Did she even remember that Tony could do magic? She kind of thought of that one tv show whenever she thought of Tony.
"If he can help find her," She pinched her lip and tried to remember the stuff she'd learned in that thaumamaterjiggy class about magic in an investigation... Right. Not remembering much. "Then we should go see if he's home! The longer we take, the further away they can get and I don't really know how long I was out to start with, so I need to get going after her!"
Priestly "Oh hell no," said Priestly, even as he lead the way out the door to go find Tony. "You're not leaving me out of this."
Blossom "Can you fly? Well, I can carry you, I guess, so that part is okay." She followed, despite her discomfort at walking the halls as Blossom. She really didn't want to mess with de-transforming right now.
"What powers and weapons do you have?" She didn't remember Dinah saying. "The villain... She's really fast but she seems to mostly do martial arts stuff." Really really fast.
Priestly "Uh." It was one thing for him and Dinah to joke about fighting crime with a spatula. It was another to actually be contemplating doing it. "I'm mostly Back-Up Man."
Blossom To her benefit, Blossom didn't facepalm; she really needed to talk to Dinah about this contingency plan.
"I know you want to help and all, but if you're there I'll be worried about protecting you and fighting."
Priestly Priestly scowled. "Hey, I can handle myself, okay? I'm really good at getting myself out of harm's way." He was, too. He was a very fast runner. "Look, I can, like . . . coordinate things or something. If you and Tony are going in, you'll need someone who can keep their eyes on a couple different things and report weird situations or whatever."
Blossom "Priestly, I don't have my usual team with me, and my current partner was kidnapped and I was already defeated once, she's that good..." Blossom rubbed her sore temple.
He did have a point about the coordination part, though. Especially since she barely knew this world city and she'd never worked with Tony before at all. "Look, fine. If you promise to keep in, like, constant contact with one of us and totally out of sight?"
Dinah was going to kill her for allowing this.
Priestly Which was only fair, considering that Dinah's sisters were going to kill him for letting Dinah get kidnapped in the first place.
"That's me, total discretion guy." Unless he saw a chance to actually, you know, help. "Here we are." They'd reached Tony's room. He reached out to knock on the door. "Let's just hope he's in."
Blossom Blossom still wasn't sure how it would work, finding Dinah with magic but if he wasn't, their only choice was to scour the city. Which would take forever.
She peered over Priestly's shoulder, anxious. "His door looks open a bit? We may be in luck!"
Tony "I'm just saying, what if the gummy dinosaurs have taken the weetiny bunnies hostage?" Tony was saying to Raven. "Hey, what's up?" he said to Priestly and Momoko, opening the door to them.
Raven Raven sensed anxiety from Priestly and Momoko and gave them a look of concern. "Something is wrong," she said. "What has happened?"
Priestly "Dinah's been kidnapped. We were kinda hoping you guys could help us figure out where she's been taken."
Blossom "I can't rescue her since I don't know where she took her!" Blossom tried to explain, utterly frustrated and still mad about being defeated.
"It happened in Baltimore, but I lost the trail a few blocks from where the woman ambushed us. Can you help at all?" She included Raven in her plea, unsure of what her abilities were.
Tony "I can try to track her," Tony said without hesitation. He flipped open the laptop sitting on his bed and scrolled through the options. "I just need something of hers or the kidnapper's." Criminals always dropped gloves and stuff in the movies, right? "Two things with a connection to each other. I can draw a line between them."
Raven Raven was dismayed to hear that her friend had been kidnapped. "I will do all I can to help," she said, though at the moment she felt entirely helpless because they had no idea where Dinah was unless Tony's magic worked. But there was one thing she could do at least. "You are injured," she said to Momoko, sensing her pain. "Let me heal you while Tony finds where Dinah is."
Priestly "She's got . . . things," Priestly said intelligently. "If it doesn't work, I guess we could try getting the phone company to activate her GPS?" He looked at Blossom. "I thought you said you weren't hurt!"
Blossom "Dinah's mask, two gas grenades, and some bits of the villain's gas mask. Is that any help?" Blossom was pulling the 'evidence bags' back out of her pockets. She then smiled at Raven. "You can do that? That would be awesome!"
And a grin for Priestly, "It's not much! I'm a hero! I can go on if I have to, even when injured a bit!"
Tony "Let's try the gas mask stuff. Parts of a whole, that's good," Tony said. He flopped down on his belly and dug through the stuff under the bed. One blue silk tie, Lightning Bug season three, a DVD case for... oops. He shoved that quickly back under the bed and kept looking.
Raven "I can, yes," Raven said to Blossom. "I am a healer, and if we are to help Dinah, it would be wise for you to be at full strength." She glanced to Priestly and gave him a soft -- but confused, because he looked like Sam's brother except for the hair -- smile. "She is not gravely injured, but I can sense the aches and bruises. It is my gift."
Priestly "That's a helluva gift." Priestly shook his head. "Priestly, by the way. Not sure if we've met."
Blossom "It's a totally awesome gift!" Blossom was all for being at full strength so she was perfectly willing to let Raven heal her. This whole 'go get magic help' idea of Priestly's was totally a good one after all!
"Wait, 'we'? You guys are coming too? I can't fly all of us to... wherever this fight is going to be!"
Tony "'Course we're coming," Tony said. He found a plastic grocery bag of herbs and pulled out a spray of small red berries. He'd also found a roll of duct tape and a Sharpie somewhere in that mess. He crammed the berries in between the pieces of gas mask and wrapped everything together with a long strip of duct tape.
Raven "I am Raven," Raven said to Priestly. "You...are not Sam's brother." Which was a relief because Winchesters of the non-Sam variety made her nervous. Then she turned her attention to Blossom, laying a hand on her arm. "It will only take a moment," she said, closing her eyes and concentrating. "Just relax."
She drew Momoko's pain into herself, all the bruises from the fight and the blow to her jaw, and even the lingering damage from the gas in her lungs. Raven coughed as the injuries left Blossom and became her own, then it all faded and disappeared.
Priestly Priestly sucked in a breath, watching it all.
Way to make a dude feel lame, right there.
"Right. So we've got healy mojo and findy mojo and fighty mojo and . . . me. . . . Do we need anyone else?"
Blossom Blossom took a deep breath, only to stop half way and look worriedly at Raven. "Eh? Are you okay? I mean, thank you, but I totally could have handled it for a while longer if it's going to make you sick!" She frowned. Now she was totally going to go get the potions Rikku had given her; she didn't like others being hurt because of her.
Oh! "Uhm, I still don't know how you're all going to get there, but if no one else is a fighter? I really want to go get someone." If he was willing. "Roy - he's... He knows Dinah's world and since this villain totally knew Dinah, he may know her."
Tony "We could use a fighter," Tony agreed. He drew a symbol on the duct taped bundle in his hand. "The herb's belladonna," he explained, not adding that this was his first time with this spell. "It's a diuretic, makes you piss. Sympathetic magic, for clearing the way." He held the bundled gas mask pieces on his palm, reached for power and read the words of the spell off his laptop.
The bundle hurled itself at the wall of the room and stayed there. Tony's cheeks turned bright red and someone paying attention would notice the wet spot on his crotch. He cast a quick cleaning cantrip and the spot disappeared. "That way," he said, pointing at the bundle on the wall.
Raven "I am fine," Raven assured Blossom. "The pain merely passes through me; it is of no bother." But when she mentioned Roy's connection to Dinah, her expression grew more interested. "He knows her world? Dinah and I are from very similar worlds, we have learned."
And then she was watching Tony do his spell with equal interest. "That will point us in the correct direction?" she said. "Or will it open a portal?"
Priestly "I'm hoping portal," said Priestly. "'Cause, uh, 'that way' covers a lot of ground."
Blossom Thank you!" Blossom hugged Raven as an added bit of appreciation: she felt totally fine now!
She was still going to go for the potions, though. Who knew if Raven would be there at some point when Blossom really needed it? Plus she'd promised she'd start carrying them anyway. "And a portal would work really well, if we could get one! I'm going to go see if I can find Roy. I'll be right back!"
They wouldn't try to do anything on their own, would they? She had her fingers crossed as she ran for the stairs.
Tony "Not a portal," Tony admitted. He dumped his backpack out on his bed, pulled the bundle off the wall and stuffed it into the pack. The duct-taped gas mask parts pulled against the bag, straining toward the (now slightly dented) spot on the wall. Tony zipped the pack shut. "It just points the way."
Raven "I can teleport us to where Dinah was taken," Raven offered. "And it can lead us in the right direction from there. Surely that would be a shorter search." So long as whoever had abducted Dinah hadn't taken her too far.
Priestly Priestly nodded. "See, that's handy. And if it doesn't work. . . ." He pulled out his phone. "I've got a friend who might be able to hook us up with GPS or maps or something."
Blossom Blossom had left the others and hurried to her own room to get supplies (and a quick hug from Moshi) and to look up Roy's room number in her directory. Now she was taking a deep (deeeeep) breath and knocking at his door.
She was probably going to get severely yelled at for everything so far, but she really wanted him along.
Roy Roy opened the door, racked his brain for a name, and came up with, "Momoko, right?" because he but rarely forgot a girl's name. "Hey, what's up?"
Blossom "Hi! Yep!" Blossom gave a brief wave. "Well, technically, it's 'Blossom', when I'm transformed, but that's totally not important!"
She steeled herself.
"Dinah and I were ambushed tonight and she's been kidnapped. Will you go with me on the rescue mission? I'm going to need help."
Roy Blossom. Right. Roy could do code names. Then everything else got bypassed directly to, "I'll get my bow."
Blossom Whew. Blossom nearly sank to the floor with relief. She wasn't going to be the only fighter in this group of super-Dinah-friends.
"We're in Tony's room downstairs. He's trying to get a spell to find her, since I lost the trail."
Roy The last time Roy had talked to Tony was the day he'd gotten here, and he'd been a bitch to him, but: whatever. Dinah. In trouble. "Give me half a second," he said, then ducked back into his room, leaving the door open, to retrieve his bracers and a hoodie. Then he was back, saying, "I have to stop by the weapons locker on the way out. What happened?"
Blossom Blossom let him lead the way to the locker, explaining as they went. "We had just crossed the causeway when a gas grenade came flying at us. It didn't bother me too badly, but before I grab Dinah and fly us out of there, a second one came and then this lady in an ugly leather outfit and a gas mask attacked."
Blossom frowned at the memory. "Dinah got a bunch of the gas and went down quicker than me. When we fought, the villain was super fast and used lots of martial arts moves and called Dinah by name. She finally knocked me out, and both of them were gone when I came to."
Roy Martial arts, leather, could be practically anyone. The gas mask was kind of weird, but, situational, probably. "Did you get a name?" Roy asked as he headed down the stairs and toward the weapons lockers. "Dinah's universe is really different; I can't say off the top of my head who'd have a fight to pick with her. Wait. Did she look kind of like a cat and have a bullwhip?" Though Roy wouldn't exactly describe Catwoman's outfit as 'ugly.' More like 'hot as hell, but don't tell Batman I said that.'
Blossom A cat with a whip? Not much stranger than a monkey with a mecha, now was it?
"No, not a cat and no whip. No weapons at all, actually, she just kept kicking and punching. Fast and hard! She did some really great cartwheels when I threw the mailbox at her, too." Had Dinah called her by name? "I think Dinah did say a name, but I don't know if I remember it."
Roy Kicking, punching, gymnastics, again: could be anybody. Except, apparently, Catwoman. "Try," Roy recommended as he opened his locker. "I don't want to go in blind if I don't have to."
Blossom "Trust me, I didn't like it when it happened to me. I've got some pieces of her mask and the grenades back in Tony's room. Maybe there's something on them that will help." She shrugged.
"If not, I know she's super fast and really strong. I barely landed a punch on her. She didn't use any weapons, but she apparently wasn't thinking I was going to be there or something? She didn't seem to expect me to fight back." Probably because the gas bombs would have put out a normal person.
Roy "You're not from our sort of world," Roy said as he checked his quiver and switched out a couple of arrows for ones he thought he might have more need for and grabbed spare bowstrings. "She wouldn't have been able to plan for you, probably." He slung his quiver on. Then he hesitated, briefly, over the bows. He had more than one, all expensive custom work. There had been a bit of a shouting match involved in getting them back when he left Dinah's to come here; Ollie had briefly tried to claim he'd donated them to charity, but Ollie was a horrible liar. His fingers flexed over the Speedy bow, the red one, habit telling him that he needed a mask to carry it and his doubts screaming that he wasn't strong enough any more.
Dinah was in trouble. This was stupid. He grabbed the bow, slammed the locker, and said, "Lead the way."
Priestly Priestly paced a bit as the phone rang, trying to figure out how he was going to not have Helena show up and kick his ass. And not in a hot way.
They were going to kill him.
Barbara Gordon aka Oracle "Barbara Gordon," Barbara said, answering the phone, then frowned at the caller ID. "Priestly?"
Yes, Dinah gave her the phone number. But she's also just spooky like that.
Priestly "Hiiiii!" Okay, dial back that nervous cheer a bit. "So, uh, the good news is, we're already planning how to get her back."
Barbara "Get her... back?" Barbara's voice started to rise. "Get Dinah back from who and where?"
It would be jumping to conclusions if she didn't, you know, know Dinah.
Priestly "Okay, so that part we're working on." Yeah, this was going well. "Long story short, someone grabbed her, but she wasn't alone at the time so we have leads and we're going to get her. Now."
Barbara Barbara froze for a moment, and motioned to Helena to join her at the computer console, then put Priestly on speaker. "Priestly, I'm here with Helena. Tell me everything you know about the someone who grabbed her."
Helena's expressions went from shock to worry to anger, but she stayed quiet while Barbara pulled up the Delphi Circuit.
Priestly "Oh great, so she can come kick my ass." Wait, speaker. "Hiiiiii Helena!" Oh lord, he sounded like a moron. "Right, uh. She was really fast, used gas bombs and a mask, and apparently knew Dinah. But totally wasn't interested in her partner except to get her out of the way." Priestly didn't know what, if anything, Dinah had told her sisters about Momoko, and he figured it wasn't his place to talk about her.
Helena Kyle, aka Huntress "Hiiiii, Priestly," Helena sing-songed back. And yeah, that might have sounded like a threat.
"A woman? Specifically targeting Dinah--" Barbara's fingers were flying over her keyboard as she started to narrow it down, checking all female criminals who would know Dinah as Dinah, and not as Helena's nameless partner. "... that narrows it down to two. Damnit. What did she look like, physically?"
Priestly "How should I know? I wasn't there." Priestly looked up as Blossom and Roy came back in the room. "Hang on, putting you on speaker on this end." He hit the proper button on the phone and held it out. "It's Dinah's sisters. They need a description of our bad guy."
Blossom Blossom paled. Great now they knew she had gotten Dinah kidnapped?
"Ah. Uhm, she was really fast and used martial arts and had a very ugly costume? She didn't speak much, but she did call Dinah by name. Oh! And at one point she said that it wasn't my fight! She had long black hair, too."
Then she realized she should probably add, "ah, and she was Chinese? I forgot that part."
Barbara "Shiva," Barbara whispered, as Helena said "Oh, shit," in the background.
It took Barbara a minute to swallow back panic, her voice going level and calm. "You have to get to Dinah as soon as possible. There should be time. But Shiva's main goal will be killing her."
Priestly "Yeah, see, that's something I didn't want to know." Priestly looked up at the others. "We've got a location. Or, uh. A direction, but we've got fighters and healers and everything. She'll be okay."
Roy "Okay, never heard of her," Roy said. "What do we need to know? Is she meta or what?" His tone suggested that he was aware 'or what' might not actually be a better option.
Blossom Blossom raised a hand. "Wait. Why do we think she's going to kill her? She went to all the trouble of ambushing us with gas and then kidnapping her and leaving me as a witness." She listened in the important parts of class, see? "Why would she go through all that if she could have... just..." yeah, her voice kind of gave out there as she realized what she was saying.
She dropped her hand. "I guess I don't think that was her goal."
The Birds of Prey "Her ultimate goal is to kill her," Barbara said, keeping her voice steady. "Because she tried it before. She wants revenge." She took a breath. "Her own sister died before Dinah joined our family, because of actions taken while trying to capture Shiva. She felt we ought to lose a sister too."
Helena took up the thread when Barbara's throat closed, staying matter of fact as guilt swamped her friend. "Shiva's an assassin and thief. Maybe the best martial artist out there who doesn't have superpowers. She's good at all kinds of weapons. Smart. She plans." She looked over at Barbara. "She'll probably contact us soon, to tell us she has Dinah. She'll be waiting for both of us to go down to Baltimore, or wherever she has Dinah held." She paused. "She'll be ready for us. But not you guys."
Priestly "Good, 'cause we're gonna fuck her shit up." Mmmm, angry Priestly. "Well, okay, they're going to and I'm kinda gonna hang back and be Alfred."
Roy Roy looked up from examining the edge of an arrowhead to say, mildly, "Don't undersell Alfred, man." Then he stuck the arrow back in its place in his quiver and said, to the room at large, "So let's go get her. Now would be good."
[preplayed with wantstodirect, exspeedydotcom, lovemykilt, trigons_child, and blondecanary, NFI, NFB except that there was running around, OOC is still yay, and, to be continued in a moment!]
Right, okay. Two discoveries: No Dinah, and yelling made her head hurt worse. As soon as it dulled back down to just thudding, she looked over to where she'd seen Dinah fall. For some crazy reason, she didn't expect Dinah to be gone, but since Blossom knew her teammate wouldn't just leave...she totally had to be prisoner somewhere!
Now she was even madder at herself. She was supposed to be a better hero than this.
"Ow ow ow!" Bruised and battered from the smack down she'd gotten, Blossom was slow in getting to her feet. When she did, she accidentally knocked aside the gas grenade she'd landed on. She squatted back down to look at it and could almost swear Professor Gibbs was standing over her shoulder, staring at her, reminding her of the fact that this was now a crime scene so Blossom gathered any evidence she could find and streaked off back for campus, to the dorms. Dinah had said who to go to if something happened to her or went wrong, and boy was this wrong, so battered and bruised, she floated outside his window and tapped to get his attention.
"Priestly?! Open up! Something's happened!"
Priestly Okay, so girls showing up at his window was definitely a new experience for Priestly. He took a quick moment to stare in befuddlement before he opened the window.
"Get in. What happened?" This was the girl Dinah was going crime fighting with, so he naturally checked behind her. "Where's Dinah?"
Blossom That's what I'm trying to tell you," Blossom started talking as soon as she got her head through the window. "We hadn't even started anything! We just got into town and someone started shooting! And suddenly there was gas everywhere and Dinah went down. Then this lady shows up in a gas mask and a totally ugly outfit and says I'm a problem and we fight but she was too fast and kept standing on my yo-yo and kicking me and when I woke up, Dinah was gone!"
She was mad about losing the fight as well as upset about Dinah being missing, so it was not surprising if he didn't follow all of that.
Priestly He made a valiant effort at it, at least.
"Dinah's gone?" Words he never wanted to hear. "Like -- missing gone, right? Like we can find her." That was very important. "Wait, are you okay?"
Blossom Blossom's head was still pounding, bruises were forming all over, and her jaw would be very sore for a few days, but that didn't really matter right now. "My costume absorbed a lot of the blows," she shrugged, taking a deep steadying breath to calm down before pulling out what looked to be bags of candy from her pockets.
"And sorry. Yes, she's been kidnapped, I'm sure of it! We were ambushed with some sort of gas, not guns or anything. And the villain seemed to know Dinah but didn't really care about me until I got her mad and she had to knock me out. I found these at the scene when I woke up." She held out her makeshift 'evidence' bags holding the two grenades, pieces of the villain's gas mask, and Dinah's mask. "Dinah and the villain were both gone."
Did Blossom need to answer the part about finding her? Really?
Priestly Priestly was feeling like a very bad Sous as he looked at the bits of "evidence" in the bag. He had no idea what they meant beyond what Blossom had already determined.
"Right. So we've gotta -- Tony!" Yeah, 'cause that made sense. "He's got all kindsa magicy stuff. He might have a locator spell or something."
Blossom Okay, so Blossom wasn't expecting him to be the Professor or Ken and know automatically what to do? But she was totally not expecting him to suggest magic. Did she even remember that Tony could do magic? She kind of thought of that one tv show whenever she thought of Tony.
"If he can help find her," She pinched her lip and tried to remember the stuff she'd learned in that thaumamaterjiggy class about magic in an investigation... Right. Not remembering much. "Then we should go see if he's home! The longer we take, the further away they can get and I don't really know how long I was out to start with, so I need to get going after her!"
Priestly "Oh hell no," said Priestly, even as he lead the way out the door to go find Tony. "You're not leaving me out of this."
Blossom "Can you fly? Well, I can carry you, I guess, so that part is okay." She followed, despite her discomfort at walking the halls as Blossom. She really didn't want to mess with de-transforming right now.
"What powers and weapons do you have?" She didn't remember Dinah saying. "The villain... She's really fast but she seems to mostly do martial arts stuff." Really really fast.
Priestly "Uh." It was one thing for him and Dinah to joke about fighting crime with a spatula. It was another to actually be contemplating doing it. "I'm mostly Back-Up Man."
Blossom To her benefit, Blossom didn't facepalm; she really needed to talk to Dinah about this contingency plan.
"I know you want to help and all, but if you're there I'll be worried about protecting you and fighting."
Priestly Priestly scowled. "Hey, I can handle myself, okay? I'm really good at getting myself out of harm's way." He was, too. He was a very fast runner. "Look, I can, like . . . coordinate things or something. If you and Tony are going in, you'll need someone who can keep their eyes on a couple different things and report weird situations or whatever."
Blossom "Priestly, I don't have my usual team with me, and my current partner was kidnapped and I was already defeated once, she's that good..." Blossom rubbed her sore temple.
He did have a point about the coordination part, though. Especially since she barely knew this world city and she'd never worked with Tony before at all. "Look, fine. If you promise to keep in, like, constant contact with one of us and totally out of sight?"
Dinah was going to kill her for allowing this.
Priestly Which was only fair, considering that Dinah's sisters were going to kill him for letting Dinah get kidnapped in the first place.
"That's me, total discretion guy." Unless he saw a chance to actually, you know, help. "Here we are." They'd reached Tony's room. He reached out to knock on the door. "Let's just hope he's in."
Blossom Blossom still wasn't sure how it would work, finding Dinah with magic but if he wasn't, their only choice was to scour the city. Which would take forever.
She peered over Priestly's shoulder, anxious. "His door looks open a bit? We may be in luck!"
Tony "I'm just saying, what if the gummy dinosaurs have taken the weetiny bunnies hostage?" Tony was saying to Raven. "Hey, what's up?" he said to Priestly and Momoko, opening the door to them.
Raven Raven sensed anxiety from Priestly and Momoko and gave them a look of concern. "Something is wrong," she said. "What has happened?"
Priestly "Dinah's been kidnapped. We were kinda hoping you guys could help us figure out where she's been taken."
Blossom "I can't rescue her since I don't know where she took her!" Blossom tried to explain, utterly frustrated and still mad about being defeated.
"It happened in Baltimore, but I lost the trail a few blocks from where the woman ambushed us. Can you help at all?" She included Raven in her plea, unsure of what her abilities were.
Tony "I can try to track her," Tony said without hesitation. He flipped open the laptop sitting on his bed and scrolled through the options. "I just need something of hers or the kidnapper's." Criminals always dropped gloves and stuff in the movies, right? "Two things with a connection to each other. I can draw a line between them."
Raven Raven was dismayed to hear that her friend had been kidnapped. "I will do all I can to help," she said, though at the moment she felt entirely helpless because they had no idea where Dinah was unless Tony's magic worked. But there was one thing she could do at least. "You are injured," she said to Momoko, sensing her pain. "Let me heal you while Tony finds where Dinah is."
Priestly "She's got . . . things," Priestly said intelligently. "If it doesn't work, I guess we could try getting the phone company to activate her GPS?" He looked at Blossom. "I thought you said you weren't hurt!"
Blossom "Dinah's mask, two gas grenades, and some bits of the villain's gas mask. Is that any help?" Blossom was pulling the 'evidence bags' back out of her pockets. She then smiled at Raven. "You can do that? That would be awesome!"
And a grin for Priestly, "It's not much! I'm a hero! I can go on if I have to, even when injured a bit!"
Tony "Let's try the gas mask stuff. Parts of a whole, that's good," Tony said. He flopped down on his belly and dug through the stuff under the bed. One blue silk tie, Lightning Bug season three, a DVD case for... oops. He shoved that quickly back under the bed and kept looking.
Raven "I can, yes," Raven said to Blossom. "I am a healer, and if we are to help Dinah, it would be wise for you to be at full strength." She glanced to Priestly and gave him a soft -- but confused, because he looked like Sam's brother except for the hair -- smile. "She is not gravely injured, but I can sense the aches and bruises. It is my gift."
Priestly "That's a helluva gift." Priestly shook his head. "Priestly, by the way. Not sure if we've met."
Blossom "It's a totally awesome gift!" Blossom was all for being at full strength so she was perfectly willing to let Raven heal her. This whole 'go get magic help' idea of Priestly's was totally a good one after all!
"Wait, 'we'? You guys are coming too? I can't fly all of us to... wherever this fight is going to be!"
Tony "'Course we're coming," Tony said. He found a plastic grocery bag of herbs and pulled out a spray of small red berries. He'd also found a roll of duct tape and a Sharpie somewhere in that mess. He crammed the berries in between the pieces of gas mask and wrapped everything together with a long strip of duct tape.
Raven "I am Raven," Raven said to Priestly. "You...are not Sam's brother." Which was a relief because Winchesters of the non-Sam variety made her nervous. Then she turned her attention to Blossom, laying a hand on her arm. "It will only take a moment," she said, closing her eyes and concentrating. "Just relax."
She drew Momoko's pain into herself, all the bruises from the fight and the blow to her jaw, and even the lingering damage from the gas in her lungs. Raven coughed as the injuries left Blossom and became her own, then it all faded and disappeared.
Priestly Priestly sucked in a breath, watching it all.
Way to make a dude feel lame, right there.
"Right. So we've got healy mojo and findy mojo and fighty mojo and . . . me. . . . Do we need anyone else?"
Blossom Blossom took a deep breath, only to stop half way and look worriedly at Raven. "Eh? Are you okay? I mean, thank you, but I totally could have handled it for a while longer if it's going to make you sick!" She frowned. Now she was totally going to go get the potions Rikku had given her; she didn't like others being hurt because of her.
Oh! "Uhm, I still don't know how you're all going to get there, but if no one else is a fighter? I really want to go get someone." If he was willing. "Roy - he's... He knows Dinah's world and since this villain totally knew Dinah, he may know her."
Tony "We could use a fighter," Tony agreed. He drew a symbol on the duct taped bundle in his hand. "The herb's belladonna," he explained, not adding that this was his first time with this spell. "It's a diuretic, makes you piss. Sympathetic magic, for clearing the way." He held the bundled gas mask pieces on his palm, reached for power and read the words of the spell off his laptop.
The bundle hurled itself at the wall of the room and stayed there. Tony's cheeks turned bright red and someone paying attention would notice the wet spot on his crotch. He cast a quick cleaning cantrip and the spot disappeared. "That way," he said, pointing at the bundle on the wall.
Raven "I am fine," Raven assured Blossom. "The pain merely passes through me; it is of no bother." But when she mentioned Roy's connection to Dinah, her expression grew more interested. "He knows her world? Dinah and I are from very similar worlds, we have learned."
And then she was watching Tony do his spell with equal interest. "That will point us in the correct direction?" she said. "Or will it open a portal?"
Priestly "I'm hoping portal," said Priestly. "'Cause, uh, 'that way' covers a lot of ground."
Blossom Thank you!" Blossom hugged Raven as an added bit of appreciation: she felt totally fine now!
She was still going to go for the potions, though. Who knew if Raven would be there at some point when Blossom really needed it? Plus she'd promised she'd start carrying them anyway. "And a portal would work really well, if we could get one! I'm going to go see if I can find Roy. I'll be right back!"
They wouldn't try to do anything on their own, would they? She had her fingers crossed as she ran for the stairs.
Tony "Not a portal," Tony admitted. He dumped his backpack out on his bed, pulled the bundle off the wall and stuffed it into the pack. The duct-taped gas mask parts pulled against the bag, straining toward the (now slightly dented) spot on the wall. Tony zipped the pack shut. "It just points the way."
Raven "I can teleport us to where Dinah was taken," Raven offered. "And it can lead us in the right direction from there. Surely that would be a shorter search." So long as whoever had abducted Dinah hadn't taken her too far.
Priestly Priestly nodded. "See, that's handy. And if it doesn't work. . . ." He pulled out his phone. "I've got a friend who might be able to hook us up with GPS or maps or something."
Blossom Blossom had left the others and hurried to her own room to get supplies (and a quick hug from Moshi) and to look up Roy's room number in her directory. Now she was taking a deep (deeeeep) breath and knocking at his door.
She was probably going to get severely yelled at for everything so far, but she really wanted him along.
Roy Roy opened the door, racked his brain for a name, and came up with, "Momoko, right?" because he but rarely forgot a girl's name. "Hey, what's up?"
Blossom "Hi! Yep!" Blossom gave a brief wave. "Well, technically, it's 'Blossom', when I'm transformed, but that's totally not important!"
She steeled herself.
"Dinah and I were ambushed tonight and she's been kidnapped. Will you go with me on the rescue mission? I'm going to need help."
Roy Blossom. Right. Roy could do code names. Then everything else got bypassed directly to, "I'll get my bow."
Blossom Whew. Blossom nearly sank to the floor with relief. She wasn't going to be the only fighter in this group of super-Dinah-friends.
"We're in Tony's room downstairs. He's trying to get a spell to find her, since I lost the trail."
Roy The last time Roy had talked to Tony was the day he'd gotten here, and he'd been a bitch to him, but: whatever. Dinah. In trouble. "Give me half a second," he said, then ducked back into his room, leaving the door open, to retrieve his bracers and a hoodie. Then he was back, saying, "I have to stop by the weapons locker on the way out. What happened?"
Blossom Blossom let him lead the way to the locker, explaining as they went. "We had just crossed the causeway when a gas grenade came flying at us. It didn't bother me too badly, but before I grab Dinah and fly us out of there, a second one came and then this lady in an ugly leather outfit and a gas mask attacked."
Blossom frowned at the memory. "Dinah got a bunch of the gas and went down quicker than me. When we fought, the villain was super fast and used lots of martial arts moves and called Dinah by name. She finally knocked me out, and both of them were gone when I came to."
Roy Martial arts, leather, could be practically anyone. The gas mask was kind of weird, but, situational, probably. "Did you get a name?" Roy asked as he headed down the stairs and toward the weapons lockers. "Dinah's universe is really different; I can't say off the top of my head who'd have a fight to pick with her. Wait. Did she look kind of like a cat and have a bullwhip?" Though Roy wouldn't exactly describe Catwoman's outfit as 'ugly.' More like 'hot as hell, but don't tell Batman I said that.'
Blossom A cat with a whip? Not much stranger than a monkey with a mecha, now was it?
"No, not a cat and no whip. No weapons at all, actually, she just kept kicking and punching. Fast and hard! She did some really great cartwheels when I threw the mailbox at her, too." Had Dinah called her by name? "I think Dinah did say a name, but I don't know if I remember it."
Roy Kicking, punching, gymnastics, again: could be anybody. Except, apparently, Catwoman. "Try," Roy recommended as he opened his locker. "I don't want to go in blind if I don't have to."
Blossom "Trust me, I didn't like it when it happened to me. I've got some pieces of her mask and the grenades back in Tony's room. Maybe there's something on them that will help." She shrugged.
"If not, I know she's super fast and really strong. I barely landed a punch on her. She didn't use any weapons, but she apparently wasn't thinking I was going to be there or something? She didn't seem to expect me to fight back." Probably because the gas bombs would have put out a normal person.
Roy "You're not from our sort of world," Roy said as he checked his quiver and switched out a couple of arrows for ones he thought he might have more need for and grabbed spare bowstrings. "She wouldn't have been able to plan for you, probably." He slung his quiver on. Then he hesitated, briefly, over the bows. He had more than one, all expensive custom work. There had been a bit of a shouting match involved in getting them back when he left Dinah's to come here; Ollie had briefly tried to claim he'd donated them to charity, but Ollie was a horrible liar. His fingers flexed over the Speedy bow, the red one, habit telling him that he needed a mask to carry it and his doubts screaming that he wasn't strong enough any more.
Dinah was in trouble. This was stupid. He grabbed the bow, slammed the locker, and said, "Lead the way."
Priestly Priestly paced a bit as the phone rang, trying to figure out how he was going to not have Helena show up and kick his ass. And not in a hot way.
They were going to kill him.
Barbara Gordon aka Oracle "Barbara Gordon," Barbara said, answering the phone, then frowned at the caller ID. "Priestly?"
Yes, Dinah gave her the phone number. But she's also just spooky like that.
Priestly "Hiiiii!" Okay, dial back that nervous cheer a bit. "So, uh, the good news is, we're already planning how to get her back."
Barbara "Get her... back?" Barbara's voice started to rise. "Get Dinah back from who and where?"
It would be jumping to conclusions if she didn't, you know, know Dinah.
Priestly "Okay, so that part we're working on." Yeah, this was going well. "Long story short, someone grabbed her, but she wasn't alone at the time so we have leads and we're going to get her. Now."
Barbara Barbara froze for a moment, and motioned to Helena to join her at the computer console, then put Priestly on speaker. "Priestly, I'm here with Helena. Tell me everything you know about the someone who grabbed her."
Helena's expressions went from shock to worry to anger, but she stayed quiet while Barbara pulled up the Delphi Circuit.
Priestly "Oh great, so she can come kick my ass." Wait, speaker. "Hiiiiii Helena!" Oh lord, he sounded like a moron. "Right, uh. She was really fast, used gas bombs and a mask, and apparently knew Dinah. But totally wasn't interested in her partner except to get her out of the way." Priestly didn't know what, if anything, Dinah had told her sisters about Momoko, and he figured it wasn't his place to talk about her.
Helena Kyle, aka Huntress "Hiiiii, Priestly," Helena sing-songed back. And yeah, that might have sounded like a threat.
"A woman? Specifically targeting Dinah--" Barbara's fingers were flying over her keyboard as she started to narrow it down, checking all female criminals who would know Dinah as Dinah, and not as Helena's nameless partner. "... that narrows it down to two. Damnit. What did she look like, physically?"
Priestly "How should I know? I wasn't there." Priestly looked up as Blossom and Roy came back in the room. "Hang on, putting you on speaker on this end." He hit the proper button on the phone and held it out. "It's Dinah's sisters. They need a description of our bad guy."
Blossom Blossom paled. Great now they knew she had gotten Dinah kidnapped?
"Ah. Uhm, she was really fast and used martial arts and had a very ugly costume? She didn't speak much, but she did call Dinah by name. Oh! And at one point she said that it wasn't my fight! She had long black hair, too."
Then she realized she should probably add, "ah, and she was Chinese? I forgot that part."
Barbara "Shiva," Barbara whispered, as Helena said "Oh, shit," in the background.
It took Barbara a minute to swallow back panic, her voice going level and calm. "You have to get to Dinah as soon as possible. There should be time. But Shiva's main goal will be killing her."
Priestly "Yeah, see, that's something I didn't want to know." Priestly looked up at the others. "We've got a location. Or, uh. A direction, but we've got fighters and healers and everything. She'll be okay."
Roy "Okay, never heard of her," Roy said. "What do we need to know? Is she meta or what?" His tone suggested that he was aware 'or what' might not actually be a better option.
Blossom Blossom raised a hand. "Wait. Why do we think she's going to kill her? She went to all the trouble of ambushing us with gas and then kidnapping her and leaving me as a witness." She listened in the important parts of class, see? "Why would she go through all that if she could have... just..." yeah, her voice kind of gave out there as she realized what she was saying.
She dropped her hand. "I guess I don't think that was her goal."
The Birds of Prey "Her ultimate goal is to kill her," Barbara said, keeping her voice steady. "Because she tried it before. She wants revenge." She took a breath. "Her own sister died before Dinah joined our family, because of actions taken while trying to capture Shiva. She felt we ought to lose a sister too."
Helena took up the thread when Barbara's throat closed, staying matter of fact as guilt swamped her friend. "Shiva's an assassin and thief. Maybe the best martial artist out there who doesn't have superpowers. She's good at all kinds of weapons. Smart. She plans." She looked over at Barbara. "She'll probably contact us soon, to tell us she has Dinah. She'll be waiting for both of us to go down to Baltimore, or wherever she has Dinah held." She paused. "She'll be ready for us. But not you guys."
Priestly "Good, 'cause we're gonna fuck her shit up." Mmmm, angry Priestly. "Well, okay, they're going to and I'm kinda gonna hang back and be Alfred."
Roy Roy looked up from examining the edge of an arrowhead to say, mildly, "Don't undersell Alfred, man." Then he stuck the arrow back in its place in his quiver and said, to the room at large, "So let's go get her. Now would be good."
[preplayed with wantstodirect, exspeedydotcom, lovemykilt, trigons_child, and blondecanary, NFI, NFB except that there was running around, OOC is still yay, and, to be continued in a moment!]