"Allright," whispered Esper to herself as she looked down into the abandonned Bludhaven warehouse fromthe high window she floated outside.

Abandonned, that is, but for the criminals she had tracked there all the way from Gotham City.

Esper was quite proud of herself- she had tracked them using none of her telepathic abilities, no mind reading or control. She was training herself not to rely too much on her powers, and this was an excellent start. Just good old fashioned detective work.

Well, that, and using her telekinetic abilities to follow them from the air, but young Laurel tried not to dwell on that part.

This band of six thugs had committed assault and armed robbery in Gotham, and had taken their ill-gotten gains back to their secret warehouse lair in Bludhaven. Esper had tracked them all the way back here, all on her own, and now she was ready to make the bust.

The fact that they had chosen Bludhaven to make their lair just made things even better.

"I'll show that jerk Nightwing," grumbled Esper under her breath as she continued to float by the window and watch them. "I'll bring these armed, dangerous criminals to justice all by myself, and I won't even use mind control to do it. And in his own city, too. Then, he'll HAVE to let me be a hero; he'll want me on the Outsiders for sure."

"Heck, he might even start to like me, if I do a good enough job."

Well, OK, so that last part was just self-delusion and wishful thinking. A girl can dream, right? And, oh my stars, Nightwing is SUCH a hunk...

No. No. Laurel Candor, stop thinking about Nightwing's butt and focus on the task at hand.

"But it is SUCH a CUTE butt," she whispered to herself just before she smashed in the window she had been watching through and swooped down to hover above the startled, armed criminals in her dashing ble, white and silver costume. "Criminals, beware!!" she said in a voice that was intended to sound commanding. "I am Esper, greatest Super-Heroine of them all! And I'm here to take you to the police, to answer for your heinous crimes!! Surrender now, and it will be easy on you! Defy me at your own peril."

There were thirty seconds of absolute silence. Then all six criminals burst out laughing.

"Aww, c'mon, stop laughing at me!! I'm taking you to jail, so shut up and start surrendering!!"

"Tommy," said the largest of the hoodlums, "take the bitch down!!"

"Wit' pleasure, Billy," Tommy replied, and produced a sub-machine gun that he proceeded to swing in Esper's direction, stll chuckling slightly.

"Well that won't do at all," said Esper with a grin as she telekinetically ripped the gun from his hands and whacked him over the head with it. At that, chaos broke loose, with all five remaining hoodlums scrabbling to shoot, hit or succeed in throwing something at Esper, who responded by throwing them all telekinetically around the room, yawning as she did so. "I told you guys to surrender. Just let me know when I've bashed enough sense into you."

Perhaps, however, she needed some sense bashed into her, for she never saw the seventh criminal, crouching among the boxes in the back of the warehouse, keping the back of her head within the sight of his sniper rifle, slowly applying pressure to the trigger... "I've got you now, bitch," he whispered to himself with a broad, sick grin.

She certainly didn't sense him, determined as she was to win this fight without the benefit of mind reading.

And if she didn't see THAT guy, she sure as hell hadn't noticed the mysterious dark shape that had been observing the whole scene, that had heard every word she muttered to herself outside the window, that witnessed every move she was making, and that did indeed see the sniper that had drawn a very accurate bead on her very pretty head.

A dark, mysterious shape that, unlike Esper, actually belonged in Bludhaven.

A dark, mysterious shape that went by the name Nightwing.

The Bludhaven vigilante, Nightwing croutched silently as he watched half a dozen paid thugs pull into their warehouse stronghold. An amused smirk graced his lips as they all climbed out of their vehicles and began go over their booty.

It looked like Batman's information had panned out again. Both the Dark Knight and former-Boy Wonder had been investigating this band of crooks for over 3 months now, in hopes that they would lead them back to the big dog.

The Gotham Gang War had finally been resolved through the efforts of Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, Oracle, Tarantula, Catwoman and the newly returned Robin. Unfortunantly in the aftermath of the war, a new bread of crimelords were stating to take up where the old wiseguys left off. Nearly all of them were now under the control of the big man himself: Black Mask.

Of course not everyone was so willing to blindly follow Roman Sionis. There guys were an example of those people. Whoever their boss was, Nightwing and Batman were still unsure about. But considering the size of this hit, it looked like they might soon get their answers.

Raising his hand to his hidden com-link, Nightwing began to listen in on their conversation hoping for some lose lips. But before anyone could say anything of any important, Nightiwng's attention was drawn to some sudden movement near him. Sticking close to the shadow, Nightwing stalked over to find out who else was enjoying the steamy Bludhaven nights.

He had expected it to be one of the other Clan members, who Batman had sent as back up.

No such luck.

The redhair and blue and white costume was a dead give away. Esper. Nightwing supressed a groan. He had hoped that after the incident with Dumas and the Outsider's she would have listened to him and hung up that very 'subtle' looking cape. But of course, he knew she was too thick to listen.

Honestly the last thing he needed was his own version of Spoiler screwing up his cases. Dick winced. That was inappropiate. Spoiler may have been an airhead, but she was Batman's partner for a bit. He needed to show a little respect.

Shaking his head, Nightwing overheard her talking to herself loud enough, that she might have just worn a sign saying 'please shoot me'.

Before the Bludhaven Hero could make his presence known and get rid of his new annoyance, Esper decided that it was time to make her apperance and crashed through the window that she was standing at. Nightwing's eyes shot open wide in fury.

That little twit had offically ruined his entire investigation. Tonight Nightwing was going to get information about the boss and then bust these guys later. But now everything was shot to hell. And if that weren't enough, he now had Esper trying to get herself killed.

Again.

"Damnit..." Nightwing groaned to himself, as the red-head 'heroine' landed below in front of the six visible crooks. She hadn't even canvased the area for other crooks! He's seen stupid movies, but seriously! Didn't she learn anything from her tag-along with the Outsiders?

"Oh Jesus Chist..." Nrightwing groaned, slapping his forehead with a nausiated look. Who the hell actually talked like that? She not only sounded like a stupid egotist, she was sounding like a stupid egotist from a 1930's comic book.

Nightwing turned away from Esper when he caught sight of a seventh goon, holding what appeared to be a snipper riffle. Without a second thought, Nightiwng leapt down from his perch towards the would-be snipper. A batarang snapped in his hand and he flung it out.

There was a silent hissing down followed by metal striking metal, the Batarang knocked the rifle aside, causing the gun shot to go into a nearby wooden crate. When the goon realized what had happened he looked up in time to see Nightwing land on another nearby crate glaring at him.

"Nice gun," Nightwing growled. "I bet it would look just great stuck up your sorry ass." Before the snipper could reply, Nightwing's fist had connected with his face four times, but it had been so fact it only looked like twice. Nightwing grabbed the man by the shirt and tossed him to one side near where Esper stood. He didnt' say anything to her, but judging from the scowl on the face, he was NOT happy.

"Take THAT and THAT and THAt and THAT!! There. I TOLD you to surrender," said Esper smugly as the last of the thugs finally lay groaning at her feet from her telekinetic bashing. "Now I just need to find some rope or something..."

"Nice gun," Nightwing growled. "I bet it would look just great stuck up your sorry ass." Before the snipper could reply, Nightwing's fist had connected with his face four times, but it had been so fact it only looked like twice. Nightwing grabbed the man by the shirt and tossed him to one side near where Esper stood. He didnt' say anything to her, but judging from the scowl on the face, he was NOT happy.

Esper looked over as she heard the thump of the sniper hitting the ground near her. "Where did YOU come from?" she exclaimed with surprise before she realized that to land like that, he would have to have been thrown. She looked over and saw...

"Nightwing!! Oh, you were here the whole time!! Did you see how I..." finally, his scowling expression registered to Esper's senses, and Esper's own exuberant smile faded slowly to a worried frown. "But... why are you mad? I got them!"

Nightwing brushed past Esper and moved towards the group of unconcious thugs and taking out several sets of plasti-cuffs, began to bind their hands. He was obviously using a good amount of self-control of his annoyance.

After tying up the last crook, Nightwing stood up tall, and his hand fell to his sides curled up into fists. He turned towards Esper and stalked towards her like a panther ready to pounce.

"I'm mad because Batman and I have been following these crook for several months now, hoping that they would lead us to their boss and in turn give us enough solid evidence so that the police would be able to arrest them and then be able to try them in a court of law."

"But because of YOU getting involved something that doesn't not involve you, three long months of investigation has gone to hell. Their boss is going to find out what happened and then he's going to move his operation and Batman and I will have to start our investigation from scratch."

He leaned in dangeriously. "Does THAT answer your question?"

"I'm mad because Batman and I have been following these crook for several months now, hoping that they would lead us to their boss and in turn give us enough solid evidence so that the police would be able to arrest them and then be able to try them in a court of law."

"But because of YOU getting involved something that doesn't not involve you, three long months of investigation has gone to hell. Their boss is going to find out what happened and then he's going to move his operation and Batman and I will have to start our investigation from scratch."

He leaned in dangeriously. "Does THAT answer your question?"

Esper gaped at him for a moment, a look of dawning horror on her face. "But... but... but... How was I supposed to know that? It's not like you guys put out bulletins, or something. I just... tracked them! I didn't know that you were allready on to them! i tracked them, and I followed the, and I took them down, all without using telepathy or mind control or astral projection- just detective work and a little telekinesis. Didn't I do a good job?" she asked in a voice that got smaller and smaller, desperately seeking some kind of approval. "I mean, I did take them down all by myself..."

"Yeah, you took down a couple of small fish, and just let the big one get away." Nightwing shot back. The irony of the fact that he sounded like Batman was no lost on him, but he'd consider smacking himself over that later.

"You were supposed to know, by studying the ENTIRE situation. Did you even consider that there was a BIGGER reason for them to pull that hiest? Did you consider looking over other recent crimes that might have matched this one? Did you ever wonder why they had opted to steal what they did? Part of being a detective is knowing everything that is going on, no matter who insiginifcant is might be."

Pressing a switch on his guantlet, Nightwing notified the police to come and pick up the goons. They were all unconcious and it wouldn't do much to interrogate them. They wouldn't talk freely. And even if they did, whoever their boss is, would be prepared to cover up their involvement.

"Go home Esper," Nightwing said turning around and walking out the front door. "Hang up that costume. Go to college and live a normal life and stop trying to get yourself kill."

"I'm not going to get myself killed! I was never in any danger!" she protested loudly. "I had these guys in the palm of my hand the whole time!!"

"Oh really?" Nightwing spat spinning about like a caged lion, before picking up the snipper-rifle with the silencer at the end and waving it in Esper's face. "Did you have Mister Gun-totting snipper, in the palm of your hand. Didn't seem like it when I had to keep him from putting a bullet in you skull."

His hand shot up quickly. "And don't give me that 'I knew he was there' B.S. because you were pretty dang suprised when you saw him."

Nightwing turned around again and began to walk out. "I've buried to enough people this year. I don't feel like burying another little girl who got in too much over her head."

"Sniper rifle? Snip... you mean, he was... I was..."

"You mean I was almost killed?"

"Oh, my God..."

The utter horror on Esper's face quickly turned of a sickly shade of green as her knees got shakey. Indeed, her shakey kneew could not hold her and she collapsed to them, holding her stomach. "I was almost killed..."

"I think I'm going to throw up."

Which she proceeded to do.

Nightwing haulted as he heard the young telepath reching her lunch and sighed. Well, he couldn't leave her here now. Once she had stopped vomiting, he walked back over to her and stared down at her in a bit of pity.

"Come on," he said, before lifting her up in his arm. "The cops are coming." Raising his hand, Nightwing fired off a grappling hook that latched onto a nearby building, and lifted the pair of them into the night sky.

Setting her down on the rooftop, Nightwing crossed his arms. "Are you ready to go home now?" he asked.

Esper sat down on the roof where Nightwing had put her down, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth and curling her legs up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her knees, so she looked like a sad, pathetic little ball. When she looked up at Nightwing, she had tears in her eyes, and she spoke between little sobs that she was trying to hold back. "I... I was just... trying to... help..."

She looked back down again and, after a few moments, had mastered herself. She didn't shift position, but when she looked up at Nightwing, she was no longer crying. "I... thank you for rescuing me, Nightwing. I can never thank you enough for that, I know it. And I know you're right. This is dangerous, and I'm probably going to get myself killed. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop."

"I want to help people, Nightwing," Laurel said, a tear or two starting to leak out now. "That's all I want to do. These... powers have been in my family for centuries, and we've never used them to help anybody, hardly even ourselves! When my Gram taught me what I could do, told me that I would be the strongest of us for generations, I was so happy! I knew, right then, that I wanted to help people! I..."

She started whispering now, and looked down again. "I thought... it was supposed to be fun, helping people."

She looked up at Nightwing again, now, and she was no longer crying- there was a fire in her eyes. "But I see that it's not, now. It's not fun. It's the most important thing I'll ever do with my life. And I'm sorry, Nightwing, but I'm not going to stop doing it. You say go to college. At college, I'm a nobody! Average grades, average abilities, average everything! I'll never help anybody that way. This way, I can help people! And I'm going to do it, Nightwing. I am. And I'm sorry if you don't approve. You saved my life tonight, and I owe you for that. if you tell me to, I'll leave Bludhaven and Gotham and never come back; I'll never bother you again if that's what you want. But I'm not going to stop. And maybe I will get killed, if not tonight, then tommorow night, or the night after, or sometime, but I don't care."

"Well, OK, that's a lie; I do care, but I'm not going to let that stop me, just like I'm not going to let you stop me. I don't care if i do throw up every time I almost get killed, I'm going to keep on doing it. It's like... like..." the teen seemed lost for words for a moment before continuing... "Likea never-ending battle! A never-ending battle to help people! And I'm not going to give up no matter how risky it is."

With that, Esper paused a minute for breath, still without having moved from her curled up little ball. "If you say you want me to leave now, I'll understand, and I'll go, but I'm not going to stop."

Nightwing stood silently with an unwavery stare as Esper defended her right to be a vigilante. "Spoiler said that same thing," he said darkly.

Esper had spirit. There was no denying that. But spirit was never enough. Jason Todd had spirit. Stephanie Brown had spirit. Donna Troy had more spirit and more skills than quite possibly any other woman he had ever known.

And look how each and everyone of them had turned out.

But on some level Esper wasn't all that different from many of the other heroes out there. Himself included. How many times had Bruce fired him from Robin, for being too reckless or something.

"You're right, I can't stop you," he said darkly. "I'm not like Batman. But I can tell you this: Your inexperience, inpatient and over-confident. Tonight is a prime example of that. If I hadn't been there, you'd have been just another statistic tomorrow. Another kid trying to hide themselves behind a mask and make themselves feel better about themselves."

"You want to help people. Fine. I can understand that. But if I were you, I'd seriously consider whether or not this is the right way to accomplish that." Nightwing was about to say something more, when his com-link went off.

"You're right, I can't stop you," he said darkly. "I'm not like Batman. But I can tell you this: Your inexperience, inpatient and over-confident. Tonight is a prime example of that. If I hadn't been there, you'd have been just another statistic tomorrow. Another kid trying to hide themselves behind a mask and make themselves feel better about themselves."

"You want to help people. Fine. I can understand that. But if I were you, I'd seriously consider whether or not this is the right way to accomplish that." Nightwing was about to say something more, when his the police ban-on his com-link went off.

Esper responded, not knowing that he was listening to a police band over his communicator. "You could... you know..."

"Teach me..."

"No." came Nightwing's short reply. "I don't have time to train a sidekick and I don't want one." Pressing the com-devise in his ear, Nightwing opened the in-coming link.

"Go ahead."

"I've found something," said the gravely voice of the Batman. "I've cross-refrenced the van's registration, the lease of that specific warehouse and the same name keeps coming out. Jason Markris."

"Any records on him?" Nightwing asked.

"No. In fact, aside from these purchases I can't find anything on him. No social-security, no family history. Meaning this is an alias."

"Wonderful. But you wouldn't have called unless you had something solid, right?"

Nightwing could almost swear he could hear the Dark Knight smirking. It was rare when he did that, so that wasn't that odd of a statement. "There is a mailing adress linked to Jason Markris."

"All I need. I'll check it out and report back soon."

"And Nightwing? Get rid of the girl. She's only going to slow you down."

Nightwing was taken aback before shaking his head. "You know its creepy when you do that, don't you?"

"Batman out."

Nightwing looked back at Esper, who looked like she had regained a bit more composure. "Go home Esper." Firing a D-Cell line to another nearby building, Nightwing gave Esper one final glance before swinging off into the night.

Esper sighed as she watched Nightwing swing off into the night. She had known he would say no, but... she had still hoped...

She only caught Nightwing's side of the conversation, but it was obvious he was being called away to deal with something else, leaving Esper... no, leaving Laurel... to go home.

Which was probably the wise thing to do.

However, if this evening's events had demonstrated anything, it is that while laurel Candor is many things, wise is generally not one of them.

Mindful of the fact that the Bludhaven police were allready en route, Esper quickly flew back down to the warehouse, entering through the window she had originally broken to gain entry.

She heard sirens in the distance; there was little time. Crouching over the thug who had been giving the orders, she touched his temple with the tips of her first two fingers (the physical contact wasn't really necessary, but it helped somewhat) and probed into his mind. She wasn't used to being rushed and had a moment of frustration as the man's memories washed over her, but in short order she was able to find what she was looking for.

Allright, he doesn't know who the boss is, but he is only one layer removed. He works through a middle man named "Slick Charlie"... what a crappy nick-name... and Slick Charlie works out of the back of a butcher shop on Cooper Street. Perfect. Esper broke the link and flew back out the window just as the police kicked in the door, missing them by less than a second.

As she flew torwards Cooper Street, she contemplated her choices. She could telepathically contact Nightwing and tell him what she had found; he was still well within range of her not inconsiderable abilities...

But he had made his opinion of her pretty clear. Esper finally conceded to herself that it was time to stop living in a fantasy world. Nightwing would never accept or respect her, no matter what she did. Besides, he had allready been called off to deal with something else, and it was doubtful he would welcome the distraction.

So, Esper would deal with it herself. She would go to the middle man, find out who the boss was and take him down. Then, she would go home and rethink her plans for the future, and for her Esper persona. She wasn't giving anything up, of course, but she needed to do some serious thinking about how she was going to go about this.

But all that later. For now, she had a date with Slick Charlie in the back of a butcher shop on Cooper Street.

The sleak form of Nightwing raced across the rooftops and fired off another grappling hook. Swinging down, he suddent cut the line before it went to taught, and executed his world famous 'Quadruple Somersault of Death'. He was one of the only two people alive who could perform this move.

He wasn't exactly thrilled with tonight's turn of events. Their investigation was most likely shot to hell. No doubt the boss behind this caper was already aware that somethign went wrong and moved his opperation.

Nightwing's only hopes was that the this 'Jason Markris' fellow had left some kind of evidence behind.

At long last the black and blue clad hero landed on the old Bluhaven Daily Newpaper facility. The local city newpaper had moved to a more... high class building on the East End, thus leaving this place open for any nutball with the cash to buy or steal it.

Looking about, it seemed this place was completely vacant. No guards, not lights, no nothing. There wasn't even a security system in place. That could either mean the info from Batman was wrong (which was highly unlikely) or that 'Markris' had already moved out.

Opening one of the many skylights that these buildings seemed to have, Nightwing lowered himself down to the ground floor of the building. Everything was quite and there were no lights one. Turning on his starlight night lenses in his mask, the room became completely visible and now covered in a soft green light.

"Now lets see what treats we can find...?" he asked himself as he stalked further into the room, completely unaware of the an out of place chair that seemed to grow a pair of pale yellow eyes.

"Darn, darn, darn," growled Esper, kicking an empty box with frustration. Apparently, news travels fast in this town- Slick Charlie had allready moved out. Must have heard what had happened to those thugs and been afraid of being taken down.

She was so close, she could literally feel it.

Wait.

She really COULD literaly feel it- a psychic resonance. There was something here, a clue that Slick Charlie had left behind.

She searched around the room carefully, but found nothing. Darn again.

Frustrated, she stalked out into the alley, kicking the only thing nearby that offered itself to be kicked- a bag of garbage.

A bag of garbage?

"Oh my stars... he couldn't have been so stupid as to..." but maybe he had been.

Esper carefully used her telekinetic powers to open the bag... no sense getting her hands dirty... and sifted through the stuff with her mind.

No such luck; nothing incriminating. Just regular trash. Beer cans, cigarette ashes, a couple of matchbooks...

A couple of matchbooks all from the same bar...

A clue from a matchbook? How cliche could you get?

~~~

A short time later, a young, attractive college student named Laurel Candor approached the bar who's address she had found on the matchstick cover.

"Hang on, lady," said a bouncer working outside the bar. Apparently, they had had alot of trouble with fake IDs to need a bouncer. "I need to see some ID."

"You don't need to see my identification."

"I don't need to see your identification."

"I am not the person you're looking for."

"You are not the person I'm looking for."

"I can go about my business."

"You can go about your business."

"Move along."

"Move along," the bouncer said, waving her into the bar. "Move along."

I love telepathy, Esper thought to herself as she went to sit at the bar. "A Midori Sour, please," she ordered.

She sipped her drink contentedly for a few minuts before waving the bartended back over. She slid a one dollar bill across the counter to him and whispered "I'm looking for a man, goes by the name of Slick Charlie."

The bartender made the one dollar bill... which, for some inexplicable reason, he took to be a one hundred dollar bill... disappear with the skill of a magician. "Who wants to know?"

"Tina Merlino. I'm up from Philadelphia hping to do some business while I'm in town."

The bartender looks at her suspiciously for a minute, eyeing her firery red hair. "You don't look italian..."

"I'm north Italian. Now, you going to waste my time, or find Charlie for me?"

And within moments, "Tina Merlino" was ensconced at a secluded booth with "Slick Charlie," discussing business as she continued to nurse her first drink. Without using her telepathic abilities once, Laurel was able to give the impression that she was connected with the Merlino Family in Philadelphia, and was working with them to do some business in Gotham and Bludhaven.

"...so, we've heard your boss is the up and comer in Bludhaven," Laurel concluded. "I'd like to arrange a sit down."

"I don't know," muttered Charlie... "Boss doesn't like takin' meetings. Maybe one of the Lieutenants?"

"The Merlino Family doesn't deal with Lieutenants."

"Still, I don't know if I can arrange it..."

"Oh?" said "Tina" with surprise. "Surely someone with your power, yor influence, can arrange one little teeny tiny sit down with the Boss in his headquarters," she said seductively as she gently caressed her booted foot against the inside of his leg under the table.

And in that moment of confusion, dithering and mental weakness, she opened herself telepathically just for a moment, and successfully read his surphace thoughts with no trouble, getting the location of the headquarters.

"Gee, Ms. Merlino, I just don't think..." Charlie was saying.

Had she continued along these lines, she probably could have gotten Charlie to set up a meet with no trouble, with or without a little added telepathic pressure. However, she had what she came for, and didn't want to be hasty. So, she decided that now was the time to leave. Still, it wouldn't do to burn her bridges with "Slick Charlie."

"I understand, Charlie. If you need to consult with your Boss, you need to consult." She smiled slightly at the relief that washed over Charlie's features. She got up slowly, leaving enough money on the table to cover both her and Charlie's drinks, she leaned over to whisper in his ear sensuously, "you talk to him, and I'll be in touch," kissed his cheek lightly, and swayed out the door, with a last telepathic fogging of the bartender's mind so the whole one dollar bill/one hundred dollar bill discrepency would never bother him.

And, within minutes, Esper was on a rooftop a few blocks away, in full costume and scrubbing her mouth with the back of her hand. "Blech... he tasted like ciggarettes."

And, with that, she was off, flying for the Boss's base. Not that she was going to crash in, not this time. She was going to do some recon, stay completely hidden, and give her info to Nightwing. If he wanted her help at that point, she would give it. Or, if he wanted her out of it, she would stay out.

Nightwing had turned on his turned on the ultra-violet lenses of his mask and for the last hour he had been seaching the old Bluhaven Daily Newpaper building. The building was vacant. It seemed as if no one had ever been here to begin with. Suprising really. If someone had been here then there would have been something. A cigarette butt, a candy bar wrapper, finger prints, SOMETHING.

It had only been an two hours since Esper botched Nightwing's stakeout. Certainly not enough time for someone to clean this place so extesnively.

"Hold on a minute..." Nightwing murmered. Something had caught his ultra-violet eye in the corner. Kneeling down, Nightwing examined a rather out of place marterial.

"Clay...?" Nightwing poked the lump and broke off a small piece before examining it closer. "What would clay... Oh no." A look of horrified realization stuck Nightwing like a frieght train. It all fell into place. The contradicting stories from the underworld. The chemical's stolen. The empty building. The lack of evidence all of this place.

Suddenly Nightwing's training kicked in. He wasn't alone anymore. Jumping up to his feet, Nightwing spun around just as a giant blast of a thick tan gooey substance flew at Nightiwng. The Bludhaven vigilante was unable to leap out of the way as a he was stuck hard against the mid section and sent flying into a nearby wall.

"URK!" Nightwing was pinned, and slowly the clay that had struck him began to spread, covering his entire body. He couldn't reach for any of his tools and soon the clay had spear competely over his body. Nightiwng tried his best to keep conciousness and remeber his training, but the wind had been knocked completely out of him. Soon the darkness claimed him.

---

Nightwing's eyes fluttered open under his mask and he found himself staring into a bright light hanging over him. He instinctively tried to sit up, but his entire body was pinned with metal restiants to a metalic table. His arms, his legs, and even his head was being held with metal arms on either side of his skull.

Nightiwng growled as he fought against the restaints. He couldn't reach for the lock-picks in his secret compartment of the suit. He could barely move.

"Oh good," drawled a new voice. "Your awake. Can't start the show until the star attraction is ready."

Although he was unable to turn his head, Nightwing shifted his eyes to the see the speaker. It was hard to make out the form with the spotlight in his eyes but he knew the speaker well.

He stood at over 8 feet tall, with a bulbus nearly shapeless former. Chrome yellow eyes glared out from under heavy clay lids and uneaven ugly teeth showed from behind heavy shapeless lips.

"Clayface."

Esper floated around the perimeter of the Bludhaven Daily News building. This was the place.

Well, she certainly wasn't going to go rushing in this time. Just observe, gather intelligence, and give it to Nightwing later.

With that, she cautiously approached several of the windows, peering in, and making mental note of what she found within.

"Long time no see bird-boy," Clayface chuckled cruelly.

"Not long enough if you ask me," Nightwing grumbled. "So aren't you supposed to be under observation over at the DEO, Hagen?"

"I gave myself early parole. For an organization that is supposed to handle the Metahumans in the world, they're pretty dang stupid, ya know?" The bulbus creature strolled over to a nearby lab stable and creating 5 different sets of arms began to mix chemicals together.

"Never knew you were smart enough to own your own chemistry set," Nightwing said. He tried to get a view of what Clayface was making, but unfortunantly he could barely see anything but the overhanging spot light from his spot.

"Hang around enough doctor's trying to 'cure' ya, and you too would know a thing or two about science." Nightwing rolled his eyes and instead tried to look around his surroundings.

The spotlight and head restraints was really making it hard to see anything, but using his hearing and smell he began to get a better idea about things. Ink. In the distance he could hear water dropping and a rats squeaking. He could also smell ink and mildue. He was still in the newspaper building. The mildue scent was probably signalling the sub-basement level. That would explain why he didn't find anything upstairs.

"I bet you're wondering why I left you alive, huh?" Clayface then ask, interupting Nightiwng's thoughts.

"If I say no, will that mean you'll shut up?"

Clayface scowled a bit. "I'm going to fix what was done to me. Sure, these powers are great and all, but lets be serious. It's more problem than its worth. So here's what I'm going to do..."

'Oh my god,' Nightwing thought. 'He's actually going to tell me his entire plan. Why do they always spill their entire plan? Just kill me and get it over with...'

"...is re-create the accident" Clayface continued. "I'm using the same chemicals that turned me into... well me, and then use that to reverse the process. But first I need a test subject. And guess who that will be?"

Nightwing rolled his eyes. "Oh get over yourself, Hagen."

"Smart mouth."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Clayface's expression turning to immense annoyment but he turned about to continue his work. Meanwhile that left Nigthwing to lay their and attempt to figure out what to do next. His body was pinned a position that was too difficult to move. And the restraints were obviously made from Clayface's own body, thus meaning that there were no locks to pick. And he couldn't reach for his ice disks to freeze the restaints loose.

Meaning he'd have to call in for back up. Robin was now residing in Bludhaven, making him the best subject. But just as Nightwing was about the press the com-switch hidden on the inside of his palm, the com in his ear click. It was signaling one of his tracking devises was nearby.

'Oh jesus... Not Esper.'

"Wait a minute," muttered Esper to herself. "Why am I flying around looking into windows when I don't even know if anybody's home?" With a smile, she let her eyes flutter closed as she hovered next to the building, scanning through it for thought patterns.

OK, she thought, detecting two thought patterns... that one's kind of strange... oh my stars!! That's Clayface! she concluded, recognizing his disorienting and alien thought patterns from their first encounter. There's no way I'll get anything out of THAT labrynth... let's see if I can get something from the other one... my, what a disciplined mind this criminal ha... her thought stopped in midword as she gasped. "Nightwing!!"

The two of them were in the middle of the building, next to each other, unmoving, which most likely meant one of three things-

That Nightwing was stalking Clayface, who was unaware of the vigilante's presence.

That Nightwing had defeated and captured Clayface.

That Clayface had defeated and captured Nightwing.

"I'll just take a little peek and... oh my stars!!" Esper exclaimed as she looked through Nightwing's eyes and saw his predicament. She touched his mind lightly, allowing for two way communication while being very careful not to look at anythig other than his immediate perceptions.

Nightwing, this is Esper. I'm sorry to bother you like this, but I found this place on my own after you left. I was going to stake it out and gather intell and then pass it on to you so I didn't... you know... ruin anything... when I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be kind of captured and stuff. I know you probably have everything under control, and I'll leave if you want me to, but I thought it would be irresponsible not to just check first and see if you needed any help. There was a slight hesitation, then she added, or, if you don't want help from me I could, you know, call someone for you or something? Please don't be angry!!

Nightwing, this is Esper. I'm sorry to bother you like this, but I found this place on my own after you left. I was going to stake it out and gather intell and then pass it on to you so I didn't... you know... ruin anything... when I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be kind of captured and stuff. I know you probably have everything under control, and I'll leave if you want me to, but I thought it would be irresponsible not to just check first and see if you needed any help. Or, if you don't want help from me I could, you know, call someone for you or something? Please don't be angry!!

'Esper, shut the hell up for a minute, would you?' Nightwing replied mentally. 'I've already got a throbbing concussion. Your babble isn't helping.' Normally Nightwing wasn't THAT tactless, but with the situation he was in, it could obviously be excused.

It was needless to say, Nightwing didn't want Esper there. He didn't even want her wearing a costume and working inside his city. She had yet to prove she was anything more than a hinderance and all around pain in the perverbial rear-end. But fact was fact, Lady Luck had given him an opening and if he didn't take it, he'd be a puddle of goo on the floor within a few minutes.

Clayface looked up at Nightwing from his work table. "You say somethin'?"

"Quite a bit actually. I'd even have a gesture for you, but as you can see, my hands are a little tied."

Clayface smiled and walked towards the table. "Ya know, I love inflicting pain on people as much as the next disfigured mutant clay creature, but I really don't think I'm in the mood to listen to you through out the whole process." Lifting his arm in the air, Clayface began to melt a stream of clay over the vigilante's face blocking off his air passages. "Don't worry. I won't kill ya. I need you alive to work, but this should keep you quiet for a bit, huh?'

Nightwing's eyes narrowed. He didn't know which was more idiotic. The fact he had allowed himself to get into this situation, or what he was thinking next.

'Esper, I'm in the sub-basement of the building. I need you to go find--" But Nightwing's next thought ended abruptly when he finally could no longer breath and passed out.

'Esper, I'm in the sub-basement of the building. I need you to go find--" But Nightwing's next thought ended abruptly when he finally could no longer breath and passed out.

"Ooooh, I hate it when that happens," muttered Esper.

She probed into Nightwing's unconscious mind, trying to find what he had been about to say or to contact some remnant of consciousness. It shouldn't be very difficult- she has on many occasions communicated with people who were sleeping, so someone who was unconscious should be much the same.

Nightwing? Can you hear me? You lost consciousness, but you didn't finish your thought. What am I supposed to find?

No reply came.

As Nightwing had passed into a state of unconciousness, his natural mental defences that he had devloped over years of meditation and training kicked in. His defense were not as strong as they would be when he was concious and they certainly were not on par with Batman, but they were enough.

If Esper were to keep pushing she would most likely be able to breach his defenses but not without learn far more about Nightwing than was necassary.

She was on her own.

"Great. I'm on my own."

Well, Esper had two choices. She could go try to get help from Nightwing's friends like Batman and Robin, who she would have no idea how to find without seriously raping Nightwing's mind or some other equally unethical solution. Or, she could go down there and save him herself.

Which really left her no choice at all.

"Hang on, Nightwing, I'm coming," she whispered to herself as she snuck into the building, floating down the hallways. She had a fix on their position from Nightwing and Clayface's brain activity, and it only took her a few moments before she was hovering outside the door.

Now came the difficult part. As she had learned the hard way at their last encounter, Clayface's mind was too warped, too alien, for her to enter under normal circumstances. Otherwise, she could just telepathically command him to release Nightwing and surrender. She could use her telepathic abilities to help bring Nightwing back to consciousness, but that would take more time than she had.

There was really no getting around it- she had to confront Clayface directly. She remembered from their last encounter that he was vulnerable to cold- thatg was how Aqualad... err, Tempest... had stopped him. She also thought that she remembered Nightwing mentioning something about electricity. Was that right?

Wait, Nightwing carried those ice disk thingys... he had been thinking about them just before she made contact with him. She tried to remember... he was thinking of freezing the restraints... but he couldn 't reach them... and she lost it. She would have to look in his mind for more precise information, and there just wasn't enough time to get mast his defenses.

Perfect. Allright, here goes nothing. With a last telepathic check to be sure of the exact locations of the two men in the room, Esper blasted the door, knocking it right off it's hinges and into Clayface. While the door was still in the air, she reached out with her mind, grabbing onto Nightwing and yanking him away from Clayface, sending him through the door to rest in the hallway behind her. She was silent the whole time, no batlecries or lofty exortations. This was serious, and her face bore an expression of grim determination.

As soon as Nightwing was outside the doorway, she sealed it off with a telekinetic field so Clayface couldn't get to him, and continued to press it up against the wall with the door she had ripped off. Now, finally, she spoke, in a voice that surprised hr by its calmness. "It's over, Clayface. You can't win. Let's just end this peacefully before you get hurt."

As Nightwing was ripped away from Clayface, the clay mask that had been blocking his breathing passages shattered allowing precious air to re-enter his lungs. Conciousness began to return to him though he wished a bit that he hadn't. His head was throbbing like jackhammer.

His eyes cracked open and he saw a head of red hair before him. "Babs?" he murmered weakly. No, that wasn't right. Babs wasn't in Bludhaven. She wasn't even in Gotham anymore. She had left him. Told him she couldn't be with him, because he reminded her of what she lost.

He missed her so much.

'Focus Grayson,' he reminded himself.

The memories slowly returned to him, as did his strength. Looking up again, he realized who his 'savior' had been. "Esper?"

Esper sensed Nightwing slowly awakening out in the hallway behind her telekinetic shield, but didn't let herself get distracted, keeping all of her attention on Clayface.

Clayface's attempted to chase after Nightiwng only to meet with Esper's TK barrier. His face controtated into mild annoyance, and his next actions were intentaneous. He leapt up towards nearby air-conditioning vent and melted through the slits. A moment later he re-appeared in the hallway after melting out of another venelation vent and after re-shaping himself stood ready to do away with this new problem.

He glared down at Esper with his grotesque yellow eyes. "Who the F**K are you supposed to be? Super-hooker?" His mouth contorted into a freakish smile. "Oh well, not like anyone is going to care."

In a split second his arms flew out and two wave of clay shot forth. The tip of the clay morphed into steal axes and flew down, ready to cut the two costumed vigilantes in half.

"I'll be sure to send on half the Bat and the other half to the cops!" Clayface laughed loudly.

"MOVE!" Nightwing shouted, nearly getting his head sliced off by one axe while the other flew at Esper's head.

Esper ducked under the axe swipe and rolled out of the way. She reached out telekinteically, trying to get a grip on Clayface's limb...

Ugh. It was like trying to hold on to hard boiled eggs. It was too... shifty; she couldn't get a grip.

She couldn't easily handle him telekinetically, except to wrap him completely in a TK field which would be a temporary solution at best. She couldn't effectively mess with his mind. There wasn't much in the room that she could use as a weapon; she had to trust to Nightwing to know how to beat this guy.

First thing's first, however- get him off balance. Even as she was still rising from her roll, she lashed out with her mind and smashed every light, plunging the room and hallway into pitch blackness. Surely Nightwing had something in his costume that let him see in the dark; after all, he and Batman did always work in it. For Esper's part, she reached out telekinteically and telepathically, getting almost a "sixth sense" feel for where everything was around her. As soon as she had established that, she floated up close to the cieling so that she wasn't in the same place she had been standing before Clayface had become blinded.

Finally, she reestablished contact with Nightwing. OK, so what do we do NOW? she asked in his head.

(My mistake. I mis-wrote. I intended to explain how it got past Esper's shield, but I spaced. I've adjusted my post so it makes sense now.)

((Aha, I see. I'll have to alter my post slightly, too.))

Clayface continued to swing his axe-limbs like some sort of hideious chopping devise, each time drawing closer and closer to Nightwing and Esper. Hagen was by far one of the weakest members of the 'Clay Clan', what with there being nearly dozen creatures calling themselve Clayface. But that didn't make him any less dangerous than the others.

Esper suddenly used her TK to extinguish the hall-lights, which might have been a good idea on normal folk, but Clayface's vision could be altered as could his body. Making him able to see in the dark should he choose.

"Peek-a-boo..." Hagen sneered, flinging a series of clay-made-steel spikes at them. One sliced through Esper's cape, the other struck where Nightwing's foot had been a moment ago. "I see you..."

Nightwing once again felt Esper's thoughts invade his mind, though he paid little attention to how uneasy that made him feel.

'We're in too confined a space,' Nightwing thought back. 'We don't have room to move around. On my mark, I need you to telekinetically reach under Hagen and through him up. You don't need to keep a hold on him, just get him out of the hallway. I'll do the rest.'

Nightwing dodged another of Clayface's attacks, while reaching into his belt. With a snap of his wrist, he sent a small devise that looks much like his insignia up towards the celing of the hallway. Upon impact the devise exploded, causing a large amount of debris to come crashing down, but leaving a nice sized hole leading up to the main floor of the newpaper plant.

"Esper NOW! Lift him out of here!"

Without even sparing time for a nod, Esper slid a telekinetic field under Clayface's feet and hurled him up through the hole Nightwing had created before the dust had even settled. Then, while Clayface was still in the air, she hurled him into a wall with another field with enough force to break bones in a normal human being, shaking the building slightly and buying Nightwing enough time to get to the main floor under his own power without interference from the villain. "That's for calling me super-hooker," she growled after Clayface hit the wall, hovering over the hole in the floor.

Nightwing fired a grapple hook to climb through the hole after Esper had thrown Clayface through. He landed in a fighting stance, glaring down at Clayface. "Stay ready," he warned Esper.

Clayface meanwhile had just recovered from the attack on him like it was no bother. His body slid down the wall and regained its normal mutant shape. "Oh I'm sorry, you don't like Super-Hooker? Your right. That was insensitive." His body suddenly began to split down the sent, creating two Clayface creature.

"I forgot to be PC. Isn't that right Super-Slut?" The two Clayfaces raced towards Nightwing and Esper, both sending out attacks of clay.

"YOU JERK!!" Esper yelled, her face red with fury as she picked up a large desk and hurled it with enough force to rip a normal human in half at the Clayface creature approaching her, even as she dodged his hail of clay attacks.

Unfrotunately being cut in half didn't have a positive effect. The two lumps of clay stood side by side for a moment before they both transformed another pair of Cayface copies.

'Esper!' Nightwing shouted mentally. 'Keep your temper in check! He's trying to goad you into making mistake!"

He leapt back from the offending attack of his own Clayface copy before snapping out an electro-batarang and sent it flying at Clayface. Unfortunantly Hagen had expected it and created a large hole in his chest allowing the devise to fly through him easily.

"Oh damn..." Nightwing growled. "The moron actually learned to evade batarangs..."

Esper didn't reply, but visibly winced at Nightwing's mental rebuke. She needed to center herself again.

Unfortunately, this did not seem to be a condusive time to meditate.

With a soft growl, Esper said "I think two are enough," and created a pair of telekinetic fields to try to smoosh the two clayface copies coming torwards her back into a single being. Even as she was doing this, she saw what happened with Nightwing's batarang out of the corner of her eye.

Let me help you with that, Esper said to him mentally with a voice that sounded like it ws struggling to contain her fury. While she was still "speaking," the batarang which had passed through the hole in Clayface's chest turned in mid-air and flew back, striking the one facing Nightwing in the back of the head with about the same force he had originally thrown it with.

When the batarang struck Nightwing's opponent, the creature let out a high scream of pain as the electricity disrupted his body. He groaned for a moment before dropping down to the ground in a giant lump for a few mintues before groaning again and standing himself up.

"Damn that's annoying," Clayface grumbled, before shooting at Nightwing with a stream of clay. The vigilante back-flipped out of the way while throwing down a few flash bombs. Hagen had yelped as he covered his eyes and tried mutating them back to normal.

Nightwing had expected Hagen would recover quickly. In order to take down Clayface with Electricty, he need to be shaped into a single force. Otherwise the concious copies will keep fighting and through their link they can re-awaken their fallen brethren.

Still he had hoped this would stop him enough to help Epser.

Meanwhile two Clayfaces going towards Esper didn't seem all the bothered by her attempts to merge them together. In fact they began to laugh at her in matching voices of contempt as they constantly split themselves apart after Esper had put them together again.

"Girl ain't that bright," one said to the other. "Only we decide what we feel like doing with our body."

"Let's teach her a lesson," replied the other, and simutaneously the two of them dropped down to the ground forming into two thin layers of clay that began moving across the flow at amazing rates. They reshaped on either side of her and grabbed her arms while pulling them in opposite directions.

"She kinda cute," one Clayface said.

"Yeah, but a big mouth," replied the others.

"Lets make a wish," they said as they started to pull at Esper.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Nightwing shouted, leaping away from his opponent and jumping down towards on of the Clayfaces. He wrapped himself into a ball and slammed into one of the creature. His body made a large impression in that Clay-creature force his hold on Esper to weaken.

"Let's teach her a lesson," replied the other, and simutaneously the two of them dropped down to the ground forming into two thin layers of clay that began moving across the flow at amazing rates. They reshaped on either side of her and grabbed her arms while pulling them in opposite directions.

"She kinda cute," one Clayface said.

"Yeah, but a big mouth," replied the others.

"Lets make a wish," they said as they started to pull at Esper.

Esper couldn't help it. She panicked.

She could have used TK fields with sharpened edges to slice off the arms pulling her.

Or she could have grabbed pieces of the floor or anything else to serve as a barrier, cutting off the arms long enough for her to escape.

Or she could have done any of a half dozen other things that she thought of in her room later when she had time.

But all of those require concentration and a somewhat cool head. Oh, she can do them while angry, but she wasn't so much angry when the Clayfaces tried to pull her apart as she was in a blind panic. So, rather than using any of her myriad powers, she shrieked and thrashed around vainly, thinking I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die without even realizing that the telepathic link to Nightwing was still active.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Nightwing shouted, leaping away from his opponent and jumping down towards on of the Clayfaces. He wrapped himself into a ball and slammed into one of the creature. His body made a large impression in that Clay-creature force his hold on Esper to weaken.

That was enough to bring Esper back into the present. She quickly snatched her arm away from the one that Nightwing had distracted and used a telekinetic field to slice off the other other restraining Clayface arm, darting quickly into the air. Then, she remembered how she had gotten free. "Nightwing!" she exclaimed worridly, quickly forming yet another blanket telekinetic field which forced the one that Nightwing had hurled his body into to slam across and into the second, carrying both Clayface-creatures into a wall. While they were still recovering, she extended her telekinetic senses into the wall, searching for something...

thick, round, coated with rubber and not filled with water... THERE!

Before the clayface-things she had slammed into the wall had managed to untangle themselves, the wall above their heads adbruptly burst out in a shower of drywall powder before a thick electrical cord snaked out and slammed into them, shocking them with the building's electrical supply.

"Hows THAT for bright," she shouted down at them with a grin. "Did you feel like doing THAt with your body?"

"No but I felt like doing this!" snapped the Clayface that Nightwing had been facing earlier, before his chest exploded outwards forming clamps and grabbing a hold of both Nightwing and Esper from behind.

The two remaining Clayfaces had merged back together as a result of the electricity and slowly stood up, though groaning as he regained control of his abilities and sense, though their clay bodies continues to morph and change in different ways.

The three Clayfaces turned Nightwing and Esper to face. They were grinning at the two freakishly and in unision they would blink and switch their body stance from one leg to the other.

"Now we got ourselves two test subjects," said Clayface 1.

"Now if one blows up..." continued Clayface 2.

"...then we've got a spare." finsihed the Clayface 1.

'Esper, you still hear me?' Nightiwng said mentally. 'Did you see what happened when you hit the two clayfaces with the electricty at once?'