Nightwing was going over more of the base's security, and again there was that strange blue glow added to the room and again he didn't seem to notice her at first.

Sting Ray didn't say another word. She HADN'T imagined the strange glow. Slowly, she stood beside him and leaned forward to find out where the glow was coming from.

As she leaned in next to him Nightwing blinked and the light disappeared, he startled at the sight of her and nearly attacked but managed to stop himself this time, "Ciara" he forced his hands down and breathed a sigh, "you startled me."

Ciara narrowed her eyes at him. Something wasn't right. She wasn't seeing things... "Nightwing...What exactly were you doing a second ago?"

"I uh" he looked at the screen, "I was checking the self defense systems for bugs and accuracy. I've been doing that all morning"

"Are you saying that because you're certain of it or are you saying that because you just looked at the screen?" She asked very seriously.

Nightwing looked at her oddly, "What? Of course, I'm certain of it, that's what I've been doing. You just caught me a little zoned out, it's not the most entertaining work but it has to be done."

"...Nightwing... Your eyes were glowing blue." She said bluntly. "Explain that."

"What? that's ridiculous" Nightwing touched the side of his mask, the small screens that protected his eyes and hid them slid away. "My eyes are blue Ciara" he showed her and it was true enough, "you probably just caught sight of the color through the mask. They definitely don't glow though. Maybe you mistook the glow of the computer screens reflecting off my mask."

Ciara pulled her goggles back, "No Nightwing. There was a large glow last night too and as soon as you noticed me the light vanished. I... I think you've been compromised." She took a step back slowly.

"What?!" Nightwing stood sharply, "Ciara, think about what you're saying." he cautioned, "that's a serious accusation, I'm sure there's a logical explanation."

"Then let Miss Frost check you out. We have no idea what they did to you Nightwing. They had your brain strapped into a device.... It is possible you're compromised and don't even know it." She took another step back.

"I can't..." Nightwing shook his head, "not her but... but there is another telepath that I trust-he checks out with Batman to. Martian Manhunter, he can come check me out if it's really concerning you" he stepped forward cautiously, keeping his hands in full view for her to see, "lets just... calm down, okay?"

"DON"T." She boomed, "Step any closer... If you are compromised, you'll try to keep me from talking." She took several large steps back, "I'm going to go call him now."

Nightwing stopped, his hands dropped down and he sighed, "okay... okay" he hung his head and turned away, rubbing the back of his neck. Suddenly he turned, dropping low as he hurled a batarang at Ciara that, in mid air, exploded into rapidly expanding foam to encase her.

"GAH!" Ciara tried jumping out of the way but her leg was encased in the stuff. "RED TORNADO!!!!!!" She screamed, laying on the floor. She reached into her belt and threw several water pills into her mouth. 'Don't panic,don'tpanic.'

She spat out several buckets worth of water which turned into daggers and flew toward him, "Damn it! I should haven't said anything and gotten help." She rolled over, and slammed down on her panic belt button.

Nightwing dodged half the attack and set off an explosion of heat that evaporated the rest of the water before it hit him. Swiftly he moved forward, a knife in hand and his eyes glowing blue, "analysis: eliminate the threat." he stopped, his hand touching the back of his neck as he seemed to struggle with something, "... review analysis: Class five mutant. Save her for the Reach." he turned sharply back to the computer and typed something in quickly. The door to the room sealed shut and alarms began to ring outside. On the monitors it showed that security systems were being called into play-and attacking the Young Justice group.

Ciara's eyes widened as Nightwing stepped forward with the knife, "Dick. Don't..." She sighed when he stopped but quickly turned her head when he went back to the computer.
"KID FLASH! RED TORAN-" The door slammed shut. Ciara pulled out her knife and started hacking away at the foam. "Come on... Come on...." Ciara looked up and noticed Nightwing rubbing his neck. Had they implanted something into his neck?

Red Tornado came down from his room. "...That's odd, I thought someone was calling me-" The alarms went off. "Oh dear." He said as a gun came out of the wall and aimed at him.

Nightwing pulled up the self destruct codes, his hands were shaking so bad he had to pull away for a moment, "host will is strong. Initiating full control mode" halfway through the sentence his voice started sounding slightly robotic. The spot on the back of his neck began to sprout blue tendrils that made their way down his back and along his arms and legs like an exoskeleton. The odd thing was that it looked a lot like the same technology Blue Beetle had, in fact, the thing on the back of Nightwing's neck looked much the same although smaller and a lighter blue.

"DICK! Fight it, don't let it control you. Fight it!" She yelled, reaching into her belt. 'Come on... there has to be something....' She opened one pouch. A bat shaped taser was in it. Maybe if she hit the thing on his neck with it... Ciara aimed for one of the tendrils wrapping down from his neck and fired.

Two cords shot out and implanted themselves in the tendril, a wave of electricy shot of and into the device.

Nightwing screamed in pain as the electricity hit, he dropped down to his hands and knees but even so the metal tendrils healed and grew. He turned his glowing eyes to Ciara and stood slowly, watching her while one of the tendrils grew over to the computer and plugged itself in, downloading everything it could get into, "That was a mistake" he stated, "I do not feel pain but your friend does. If you desire to kill me, I promise to kill him in the process."

"Red Tornado to team, do you copy?" The red robot man paged on his com, while taking out the security guns on his way to Kid Flash's room.

Ciara grit her teeth, putting down the taser. They should have done a full body exam on him when they got back. She made a mental note to recommend such a thing be mandatory to all persons kidnapped. "You gotta fight it Dick. Don't let it win. Fight it." She urged, picking her knife back up and continuing to cut her leg out of the foam.

"Robin to Red Tornado, wassup?" Robin replied, stopping his run to listen.


"Oh he is, it's just not good enough" the thing inside Nightwing replied, keeping his eyes on her, "just as your fighting is futile." the tendril came out of the computer and the self destruct countdown began on the screen, "I do hope you manage to escape though" he added as he walked through the newly unlocked door, "but regardless, the Reach would benefit from dissecting your corpse as well."

"Code Blue! The sercuity system has turned on us and...Oh dear gods. Self Destruct has begun. Get the team as far away as possible."

As the light blue beetle spoke, Ciara became more and more enraged, her breathing becoming shallow and heavy. She wasn't looking at him as he walked through the door, her hands in fists. "Let go.... Let go... LET GO OF MY FRIEND!" She screamed, cutting her arm with the blade. Her freckles glowed so bright they almost seemed to glow white and the gem on her forehead glowed as well.

Blood tinted water came blurting out of the wound and in under a second shattered the foam around her leg. She charged at him, tackling him to the ground and using the bloody water attacked the tendrils. She wrapped an orb of water around the beetle itself and pulled on it. "DISSECT THIS BITCH!"

((O.O woah.))

The beetle retaliated but as soon as Ciara started trying to pull it out Nightwing began gasping for breath as it cut off his air. The thing was in deep, tendrils digging up and wrapping along his brain stem. He grabbed Ciara's arm, holding firm as Dick's eyes locked with Ciara's, "disable... the destruct..." he choked out in his own voice.