Let It Rain [Robin]

[Dahlia Michelle]

A low laugh flowed from Dahlia's lips as she snuck through the streets of mansion row. She was dressed as Skari now, black mask on her face and bow and arrows strung across her back. For this particular mission she had assigned herself, Dahlia was also carrying a variety of poisons at her belt, and also some hidden elsewhere. Tonight, she was poisoning the water main.

Dahlia knew that she wouldn't be very good at sneaking into the main water supply, so she had decided to choose another way. Mansion row was made up of the richest in Jump City, and those people were the ones that she was targeting. They were also connected to the same water main, the same pipes that dispensed clean water.

It was a perfect place for her crime. Dahlia knew the area well; she had come her multiple crimes for other things. She knew where the water main was, too, because she'd broken it and flooded the streets twice already.

Once she reached the area where the main pipe was, Dahlia stopped, pulling out a hollow tube from her belt and a kind of drill. She fastened the tube to the drilled, put it to the ground, and started drilling. The drill, thankfully, was quiet.

Dahlia smiled to herself as she waited for it to hit the pipe. After a few seconds, there was a small bang, and she switched the drill onto a high power. In a few seconds, it had gone through the pipe.

The drill she was using was actually made for drilling into liquid sources; it was some tool she had read about in her engineering classes. It put a stopper into the tube so the liquid wouldn't flow up, and after it had done so to Dahlia's tube, she turned the drill off, but kept it there.

She pulled out a poison from her belt, one that didn't kill, but it did contain a strain of... well, Dahlia wasn't exactly sure what it was called, but it was something that made you sick to your stomach. Very sick. People in the streets of Jump City -- the ones who actually suffered -- got this a lot when they tried to drink the water from the public water fountains. Dahlia scowled. Now these rich people would know what it was like.

Dahlia undid the stopper to the bottle and inserted it into the drill. After she pulled a switch, the drill began emptying the poison into the water main. She watched with a sadistic smile as the liquid ran down the tube and disappeared, and she almost laughed again.

[Tim Drake]

A small yellow and black disk sailed through the air and smashed into the drill and pipe, a tiny popping sound preceding a flash of cold air and a jagged block of methane and nitrogen ice surrounding it as a dark red and black clad figure landed in the street next to her, a staff at the ready as white soulless eyes glared at her from under a shaggy mop of black hair.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" The steely voice off the boy wonder asked as he stood there waiting, staring, glaring, ready for anything...

[Dahlia Michelle]

A small whistling noise was what alerted Dahlia to something flying towards her, and she jumped out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit. She couldn't however, move the drill and the tube. In a second it had hit the drill and something exploded around her, something cold and slightly wet, even. Dahlia dashed out of the way, pulling out her bow as she came face-to-face with the infamous Robin, boy wonder.

A tiny smile lighted her face. It was too late. The poison had already gotten into the water main, and now that he had exploded the drill, the water pipe was broken, too.

Dahlia pulled an arrow from her quiver, nocking it to the bow. She hated Robin, although they had actually never met. Robin pretended to be a good person, but really, he lived as nicely as the rich and allowed them to live their lifestyle. Her eyes narrowed.

"I'm guessing I'm preparing for a fight," she replied, a smirk on her face. "I've been waiting to fight you, Robin." And with that, she let an arrow fly.

[Tim Drake]

Robin moved slightly as the arrow whizzed past him, his mask glaring at her as he staff came out and opened up, his eyes still blank white and soulless as he crouched down and pulled out a trio of disks from his belt and sized the girl up.

"I'm afraid you have me at just one disadvantage, and that is at your name... Otherwise, you're not half as good as Speedy, and I beat him once..."
Moving down Robin swept his staff out to clear her away enough so that his shock and freeze disks would work, his wrist snapping at just the right angle to launch them at her...

[Dahlia Michelle]

The arrow missed Robin, as she thought it would, but it still exploded somewhere to the right of him. Oh well, there were always more arrows where that came from. Dahlia wasn't the best fighter, but she didn't need to be. She could heal, couldn't she? She could run. She just couldn't get herself caught.

Speedy. Dahlia thought quickly. He was that other guy that dressed in bright colors and fired arrows like hers. Which actually wasn't a coincidence; she had stolen the idea from Speedy. She was, after all, a good archer, and after seeing what those arrows could do, Dahlia just had to have some.

As he spoke, Dahlia nocked another arrow, every muscle tensed for quick movement. She was practically quivering herself; she needed to be alert for a fight with Robin.

She leapt backwards as he swung that strange stretchy stick of his toward her, falling into the grass. She had been trying to avoid that misty mass around the pipe, and so she had jumped away from it, but Dahlia was forced to move herself further backwards as Robin attatched. Her arm swept into the mist, and Dahlia's arm suddenly felt as if it were on fire, burning because it was so cold.

She winced, but she landed on the grass in front of one of the houses. Her arm throbbed, but after a few seconds, it faded, her power healing whatever damage the mist might have done. She sighed.

"That wasn't very nice," she pointed out. "And just because you beat someone with an unoriginal name doesn't mean you'll beat me." She smirked. "I'm different."

[Tim Drake]

"Nice? How nice is it to tamper with a neighborhoods water supply?"

He stayed low as he moved around her, her arm grazing the frozen pipe and getting some of the materials he used to make his freeze disks work on her skin, which would make it itch, burn and feel very cold...

"Everyone says that, but I've yet to meet anyone able to make good on it."
with a flick of his wrist, three more disks flew at her, this time, stun disks, designed to send waves of electricity out once the got close to an object, after they where armed of course.

Once they had left his hand, Robin lept into the air, using his bo-staff as a kind of vault for some extra height, he then flipped over and dropped on her with a flying kick, hoping to end this, since she didn't seem very skilled at close quarters fighting...

[Dahlia Michelle]

Dahlia's eyes narrowed. "It is nice," she said, and she was serious. "Sure, maybe not to the people that live here, but what about the ones all around Jump City. The ones that suffer without medicine and the comfort of a home?"

Dahlia's arm didn't hurt anymore, and so she was more than healthy enough to dodge the stun disks... ish. She wasn't exactly expecting them to shoot electricity at her. She had watched Robin fight other people, but she'd never actually seen these little disks.

She bit her lip as one of the disk's electricity ran through her, her knees threatening to buckle. "How disks do you have?" she cried out.

But her body had already begun to heal, restoring the electrical balance inside of her, evening out her heart beat... Oh, great, and then he was up in the air trying to do a drop kick. Well, at least Dahlia could deal with that. She shot up at him with a stream of four arrows, and then jumped away.

"And what do you mean, you haven't seen people live up to it?" She frowned. "Of course I'm different." In the time it might have taken him to get hit or dodge the arrows (although at the speed he was coming from it would be a bit difficult), she nocked another arrow and shot it at the mansion in front of them.

[Tim Drake]

"That's not the fault of these people, and truth be known, many of the people here have to look at loosing everything, not just things, but family members as well..."

Spinning around, Robin deflected the arrows with his cape, tossing them away, and then as soon as he landed he had one of he bright red bird-a-rangs racing through the air, its sharp and sturdy wings extended, one of them slicing through the shaft and sending the projectile tumbling into the expansive houses front yard, his own launched object twirling back into his hand as he stood there with his staff behind him, his cape billowing out around him, an impressive figure cut out from the night as he peered at her with his masked white eyes.
"I'm sorry... Am I meant to be impressed?" he snorted as he sized her up again...

[Dahlia Michelle]

Dahlia narrowed her eyes. Impossible. He had deflected all of her arrows? She glared at him fiercely. "It is their fault, and I don't care if they're looking at loosing everything," she said. "They still have it."

She sent more arrows at him, a dozen, to be exact. Then she ran, stopped when she was nearer to the house, and sent more at the house. This time, Robin was too far away to stop them. They hit the house, and the sound of glass shattering and brick crumbling made Dahlia smile.

There was a scream, and she glanced over to see that she had broken into some kids room. Aw, the poor kid was hurt. She didn't care. Her attention was on Robin, and she leaped away from the exploded mansion, firing more arrows at Robin.

[Tim Drake]

"And how exactly is it their fault that banks and big businesses failed to curb foolish spending and expansion?"

Robin glared at her as he moved, ready to dodge at any hint of trouble, and dodge he did, he cape flaring out as he cartwheeled away, and then looked on in horror, his arm shooting out and a pair of bird-a-rangs flying out, but it was too little too late, as the front windows blew out and yelling and crying could be heard...


"Rraaahhhh!" running at full speed, he tossed handfuls of disks at her, flash disks, freeze disks, shock disks and explosive pellets as he ran past her to the house, the cries of an injured child drawing him to the biggest hole, where a young girl trembled in the middle of her floor broken glass and bits of wall around her on the floor and her bed...

Snatching the girl up Robin led her to an inner room out of the way before he dashed back out into the yard as sirens sounded off in the night.

Running back into the street he pulled his staff out again and glared at her; "Who ARE you?!? What do you want?!?" he yelled at her as he circled her, wary and angry all at once...

[Dahlia Michelle]

Dahlia raised an eyebrow. "What the hell are you talking about? I'm saying that it doesn't matter if rich people are scared of losing everything-" Sarcasm dripped from her words. "Not when other people have never had anything to begin with."

Well, at least something she had done to attack him worked. She laughed a little to herself. She had heard somewhere that there was always one major weakness in any hero -- they cared for other people. It didn't matter how powerful they were. If there were people around, they'd care about them, and those people were vulnerable.

He yelled at her then, flinging things at her in vain in an attempt to help the child. Dahlia dodged them or fired arrows to stop their progression, watching him make a beeline for the crying child. He picked her up, which Dahlia thought was a rather stupid thing to do. Didn't he know she was attacking him? But maybe he thought she'd kill the kid.

Dahlia never would, of course. But he didn't know that, and it was her advantage.

Sirens began to blare in the distance; the ever-alert city had begun responding instantly to the trouble at Mansion Row. Dahlia tossed her head up, laughing bitterly as she kept her eyes on Robin. "See how the officers come now? When there's trouble here, with the rich? Things like this happen every day with the poor, and yet I've never heard them come so quickly. Sometimes they don't come at all."

She had to run; she couldn't escape so many people. "As to my name, I don't think I'll give you the pleasure of knowing it." She tipped off her fake hat to him. "Good night, Boy Wonder." And she ran off into the night.

If he'd let her.

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[Tim Drake]

Even in his anger, Robin could pick up on the main thrust of her ranting, and it struck him as strangely odd, and very self-righteous, as well as...


So she fancied herself a modern day Robin Hood?
Fighting the injustice of class?

Oh really?


Using his staff as a vault again, Robin propelled himself onto the roof tops and balcony's of the neighborhood and using his urban free running skills he dashed along, keeping stride with the girl, a grapple in each of his hands, one aimed up, and the other down at her.

She was quite foolish to think she could escape him that easy...

Like a shadow, Robin fell from the rooftops and swung down, one grapple hooked on the tallest house around, the other aimed at the girls foot; "It's not that they are more important, it's that sadly, many people use the poorer parts of town to stage ambushes for our cities finest, because the poor have little voice, but then I'm sure one as biased against the rich as you are, knows that already..."

And with that, he fired his other grapple line at her legs...

[Dahlia Michelle]

As Dahlia ran, she sent a volley of arrows back at him, watching for anything he might do. Oddly enough he felt the need to jump up on the rooftops before chasing her. Dahlia didn't mind, of course; the extra time he took to do that let her run further ahead.

Besides, what was he supposed to do with the girl, now? Carry her along? Leave her? She fired more arrows at the child, knowing full well he'd have to save the kid. After all, what hero wouldn't save a small child from being blown up by arrows?

It wasn't her style to attack children, but Dahlia was willing to do it. Truly, she resented them for being so weak and vulnerable. Where she came from, kids were tough the moment they were born.

Robin dropped, and Dahlia prepared to jump away from those little grappling hooks he had in his hands. She was right to do so; he threw one had her feet, but she dodge that one and they next easily and kept running. If there was one thing he could never beat her on, that was speed. They both didn't have those powers, and she had a head start.

Dahlia glared at Robin. "Biased? You just called them the city's finest!" She was yelling now. "And many people do a lot of things! Just because poor parts of town are the stage for crime doesn't mean the innocent people there should be abandoned!"

[Tim Drake]

Launching a zap net out, Robin deflected the arrows, and then retracted his grapples as he ran after her, her speed impressive, but then he had a way around that...

"In case you didn't catch it, there are only a few Titans in Jump right now, we can't be everywhere when there are five of us, how can we do it with less?"
Firing his grapple again, he swung up and then started to swing after her, closing the distance slowly but surely as he swung, and the fired, over and over, hoping to get the drop on her...


Then one of his grapples clicked empty, so he clipped it to his belt and swung on with the one, knowing he'd soon have to take to just running, and he wasn't sure if he could keep up with her if she had some kind of power, which based on how fast she was moving, she just might...

At this point, he wasn't going to bother yelling at her anything else.

[Dahlia Michelle]

He didn't reply to any of what she said, and to Dahlia, it just proved her point. Maybe he thought there was no use reasoning with her, but that wasn't all his silence said. There was no getting around that Robin had just called the rich the city's finest. He had revealed his own bias, his own favoritism towards the rich. No matter what he said or didn't say, both of them knew Dahlia was right.

As she ran and fired at Robin, she saw that he was getting closer; now he was using those annoying grappling hooks to swing himself past the buildings like a monkey. Irritated, she knew she was forced to think of something.

She had two advantages. One, endanger the innocent. That would distract him, but she wouldn't be able to get him completely off her tracks. In fact, it'd make him angrier. The other advantage, of course, was her ability. Rengeneration.

Dahlia had prepared for this, in case there was ever a time when she was stuck and had to escape. There were sewers under Dump - oh no, she meant Jump -- City, and some of them were poisonous. The city had enough problems to deal with than spend time de-toxifying sewers no one ever went into. A "STAY OUT" worked fine; everyone in the streets, at least, knew what was in there. These sewers didn't contain waste or anything of the like. They contained poisonous chemical, some that burned you alive. Literally.

Dahlia had already tested it. Although it burned like hell, she could survive it. Automatically, she had been running towards one of these sewers. Dahlia drew an arrow and fired it at a sewer hole. It exploded, and Dahlia jumped right in.

A few seconds passed before she could feel the burn. She screamed out in pain; it seared her skin and her insides, but she took a deep breath of intoxicated air and plunged herself down into the poisonous water.

She could feel her power working, healing itself just to get burned again. Healed, burned again. Every second made her want to scream; she would have, if she wasn't holding her breath to keep herself from breathing in the liquid chemicals.

She knew Robin couldn't follow her... could he? She didn't know. But he'd think her dead, he'd think she'd jumped into the wrong sewer and made a deadly mistake; no one could have survived that.

And then, as she swam, she felt herself going... faster... It was a small difference, barely noticable through the pain, but she felt her speed increasing, even though she wasn't moving her body any faster than before...