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Kyle could hear his ring whispering a warning to him. Power levels, 7%. It informed him. Luckily, the former 93% had been all he’d needed. He let himself drop from the sky, using only a tendril of power to slow his fall. As soon as he had nullified enough velocity and he was low enough to the ground, he let his ring’s energy fade away completely from him. He dropped the last ten or so feet in civilian clothes that flapped in the wind and landed on his sneakers, slightly uneven with fatigue.
He was glad Jason’s habits had rubbed off on him as he ducked into an alleyway and pulled a domino mask from his pocket. Jason had gone to the trouble of getting it sculpted to his face and shaped like his Lantern mask. He stuck it in place and then popped in the earpiece that he carried now too, disguised as a set of wireless earbuds.
“Lantern Rayner back, what did I miss?” He asked as the speaker crackled to life in his ear.
“ Rendevous at 3rd and Quincy. ” Roy’s voice crackled through to him. Kyle couldn’t help but smile when he heard his voice. Roy at least was safe.“ You back on the ground?”
“Yeah, I’m grounded. I’m about out of juice.” He grabbed a length of pipe from a busted wall as he walked, swinging it experimentally to get a feel for it.
“ That’s rough, buddy. Can you do me a favor and check in on our Jaybird? Last I heard, he was at 14th and Jackson. ” Roy asked. “It sounded like he took a pretty nasty hit but I heard his guns firing so I know he didn’t go down. Plus, I’m still getting his vitals to my HUD. ”
“ Wilco.” Kyle nodded, though there was nobody there to see it.
Roy continued on, taking over as Jason’s second in command. “ An Kor’, you found Biz yet?”
“ Negative .” Kori answered coolly. “ I believe I have found his path though .”
“ Stay on. ” Roy ordered calmly. “Arty, you good? ”
“ Call me ‘Arty’ again and thine bow will take the place of yourn spine. ” Artemis hissed.
“Glad you’re all good.” Kyle teased, interjecting before it could become an argument. “And yeah, I’ll find Jay. You good with the command center and stuff?”
“Oh it’s a breeze, sweetheart.” Roy cooed. “Just got my last charge about set and then we have a fireworks show to rival Kori’s.”
Kori laughed softly and Kyle joined in.
“ Ky, Jay’s vitals just took a dive. ” Roy’s voice turned on a time, suddenly sharp.
“Shit!” Kyle hissed, taking off. “I’m on it! Closing in on 10th!” Hopefully his ring would hold true if he needed to evac him. It should be enough to get him part of the way to help at least. By then, hopefully Kori or Bizarro would be close enough to help. Dread pooled in his stomach as he ran. He didn’t have a good feeling about this.
The comms went quiet in one ear as his other filled with the sounds of his own footfalls and ragged breathing. The deserted roads were blessedly empty, no obstacles that he had to climb over. As he closed in on the intersection Roy had given him, he heard a groan. Not a human groan, an inorganic one. The building on his left was slowly lilting to the left, wood beams snapping into splinters and brick grinding into gravel.
Kyle could hear an engine under Roy’s words when he spoke and wondered what he’d hot-wired today. “His vitals are spiking again.” Roy reported.
Shit. That was too much of a coincidence. The dread in his belly was a painful knot now. “Hood!” He bellowed, cupping his hands around his mouth to help amplify it.
For a moment, he let himself hope that maybe Jason wasn’t in the crumbling, collapsing building, that maybe he was smart enough to clear out before that.
But Jason, for all his intelligence, apparently wasn’t that self-preserving. A shrill noise was muffled by the building’s complaints, but Kyle would know that anywhere. That one one of the alert noises Jason had built into his helmet. This one wasn’t an acknowledgement. This one was the SOS.
“Shit.” He muttered to himself, then remembered his open comm line. “Kori, Biz, I could use some super strength over here; I’m almost out of power.” And then, thanking Jason again for the domino mask that protected his eyes from dust and debris, he sprinted and jumped. He tapped into the power in his ring to lift and pull him up and into the building, folding himself through a shattered window.
Power levels, 6% . His ring reported dutifully. He wheezed where he’d landed on his side. At least he’d remembered to cross his arms over his face.
“Yeah, I’m aware.” He grunted out as he shoved himself to his feet. He was shaky as the building swayed underfoot. It reminded him of an earthquake. It got a little more terrifying as the floor slowly began to angle under his feet. Then he was oriented, moving through the office and over desks, following the piercing noise of Jason’s helmet.
He found him in the stairwell.
The knot of dread in his stomach swelled as he took him in.
Concrete stairs had broken apart into large chunks. One of these chunks was pinning Jason against the wall from his knees to his shoulders. His toes just barely touched the ground, giving him no anchor to push off of. The angle he was at gave him no leverage to push. It looked like he’d just barely been able to reach up and around to the command buttons on his helmet.
“Kyle.” The Red Hood’s vocal modulator scrambled his voice, making it choppy and sharp. Kyle much preferred Jason’s natural inflections.
“Hey baby, hey, I’m here.” Kyle hurried to his side, sneakers skidding and sliding in the dust and gravel. He hurriedly pressed the button on Jason’s helmet to quiet it.
Jason was pressed so tightly against the wall he could barely breathe.
Kyle powered up without a second thought, levering the boulder away from the wall with a glowing green car jack that ratcheted slowly into place. Kyle just hoped the wall would hold. He darted in and caught Jason’s weight as he immediately slid down the wall, gasping for air.
“Ky.” Jason wheezed, chest heaving.
Power levels, 4%.
“It’s okay baby, it’s okay.” Kyle promised him, augmenting his body with a bare-bones suit that would help him carry Jason. “You good? We gotta go.” He urged.
“Yeah.” Jason clutched at his shoulder. His legs were shaking underneath him. “‘S go.”
Kyle pulled his arm over his shoulders and lifted with his knees, pressing his shoulder into Jason’s armpit and supporting his weight with his shoulders. “C’mon babe.” Kyle dragged him along and Jason stumbled with him as much as he could.
Kyle could hear a nasty rasping noise, even through Jason’s helmet.
Kyle could hear a nastier cracking sound underfoot. He hitched Jason’s weight higher up his shoulder and threw the last dregs of his power out underfoot. Glowing green tiles held steady as the floor crumbled away underfoot. But-- shit, he’d forgotten to factor in the falling ceiling. His green platforms began to drop too, but this was a calculated drop, like running down a set of stairs. He didn’t need to calculate much more, just-- he threw the used platforms forward in a spearhead formation to blow out the exterior wall and then yanked them hastily back. He managed to make a wobbly line of glowing platforms that he jumped between, safely down to an adjacent roof.
Power levels, 1%. His ring informed him just before it shut off.
Kyle missed his last step as the final platform dissolved underfoot. Kyle managed to yank his knee up and turn the step into a painful slide that wouldn’t break his ankle but would leave his ass bruised for a month. He cried out at impact and Jason, still half-draped over his shoulder, flailed as he tried to roll into the impact. He and Jason fell in a pained heap with matching cries of pain, Jason’s a lot breathier than Kyle’s. They slid to a blessed stop.
Kyle’s heart was racing, pounding against his ribs.
Jason’s gloved hand fumbled up after a moment and yanked his helmet off with a gasp. He coughed as he inhaled too deeply and choked on it. Kyle was doing his best not to writhe in pain from their landing, but managed to pat his chest in a manner he hoped was comforting. Jason’s coughs subsided after a moment and Kyle hissed softly as the initial wave of pain was replaced by a bone deep throbbing ache.
“I’m assuming from the sound of our Jaybird coughing up a lung that you two made it out okay?” Roy’s voice in his ear almost made him jump.
“Ye--” When Kyle tried to speak, he realized his throat and mouth were bone dry and coated in drywall dust. It was his turn to cough his lungs out, curling up as he hacked painfully.
Jason clumsily patted his back.
Kyle gripped his knee in return. After a moment, he recovered enough to spit off to the side and try to speak again. “Yeah. We’re good.”
He was answered by the hiss of a grappling gun. After a second, Arsenal appeared over the side of the wall. His hat had gone missing somewhere, leaving his french braid on full display. He grinned at them. “You two look like shit.” He said by way of greeting and held out a plastic gallon jug of water.
“Hell yes.” Kyle reached out for it. He swished a mouthful and spat to the side and then downed a few large gulps before passing it to Jason.
Jason nearly dropped it when he took it and hissed in pain.
“You good babe?” Kyle caught the jug hastily.
Roy was already at his other side, pulling at his leather jacket.
Jason was coughing again and Kyle helped him drink as Roy stripped his jacket and gloves off. His left arm was bruised seven ways to Sunday. The skin was nearly black with thin red-violet lines where the object that had struck him had been slightly recessed.
“ Shit , Jaybird, that looks nasty.” Roy winced in sympathy.
“S’ fine.” Jason grimaced as he flexed his hand into a fist. “Nothing’s broken.”
Kyle sighed in relief. “Anywhere else?” He looked him up and down.
Jason shook his head. “I’m gonna be bruised as shit, but I’m not injured.”
“Thank god.” Kyle pressed a kiss to his sweaty forehead.
“Agreed.” Roy pressed several small kisses to Jason’s bruised arm. “I dunno what we’d do without our favorite zombie.”
Jason snorted and shook his head. “You both good?” He glanced between them both.
Kyle nodded. “I’m all good.”
“A few scratches.” Roy said with a shrug. “But nothing too bad. That big hit didn’t knock you too much?” He glanced at Kyle.
“Nope. I caught myself.” Kyle held up the hand with his ring.
“Good.” Roy leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.
Kyle couldn’t help but smile at that.
“What, I almost get crushed and I don’t even get a show?” Jason was already back to teasing so he must be feeling fine.
Kyle snorted as Roy laughed. “If that’s what you want!” Roy nudged Kyle’s chin up and kissed him properly. It was dry with dust, too warm from exertion, and clumsy with relief. Kyle brushed his knuckles along Roy’s jawline and Roy smiled against him. Roy pecked him as he pulled away and then leaned in to kiss Jason.
Jason looked more than okay with this plan. Exhaustion was clear in his face, but there was also a sense of lightness that he only ever carried after a job well done. More than that, there was easy contentment there, put there by Roy’s warmth and affection. When Roy pulled away, he pressed a quick kiss to Jason’s nose.
Then it was Kyle’s turn. He leaned in gently, aware now of Jason’s pain. His kiss was much the same as Roy’s, dry and dirty and happy, but with a little something extra, another press of lips and swipe of tongue. Jason parted slightly, just enough to whisper against his lips.
“Thanks for the save.”
Kyle smiled and his murmured “Anytime.” was lost in the rejoining of their lips.
When they parted again, all three of them took a moment to just sit and rest, taking in the fact that they were all safe and whole.
Artemis broke the silence by chiming in over comms. “Are we going to listen to these excerebrose louts in union or are we going to regroup? I was sworn ‘waffles’ would occur upon mission conclusion.”
Roy laughed and Jason snickered as Kyle sighed.
“Oh, yes!” Kori chimed in. “Earth ‘waffles’ are a delicacy!”
“Me am like.” Bizarro agreed.
“Waffles it is.” Kyle grinned at his boys.
“And a hell of a lot of ibuprofen.” Roy agreed.
“And maybe some shots.” Jason added.
“Sounds like a plan.” Kyle took their hands and linked their fingers together. That sounded like a great plan.