HIVE Revival: Deus Ex Machina

With one swift movement, Bark casually ducked out of the way of the guard's baton' the voltage eminating from it's head lighting up the HIVE Agent's mask as it slipped past his face! Responding harshly, the infultrator would bring up his wooden staff, SLAMMING it into the underside of the man's chin, cracking his helmet along the bottom and shooting his body skywards before Bark extended his hand, vines SHOOTING out from his fingertips, constricting his throat and DRAGGING him back down to the ground!

"Sheesh... You try to be friendly..." Bark muttered, dragging the groggy, breathless guard up to the control-panel, it's face flat and glowing, expecting hand-print recognition. Behind them rested the fallen form of the poor man's comrade, his armor is much worse shape, practically torn to shreds across his body as he lay slumped up against the wall, unconscious and barely alive. All he had done was ask for directions and they just attacked him... Where was this, New York!?

The HIVE agent had infiltrated this place on the orders of his benefactor, the woman desiring a certain... creature known as "Overload". For what purpose, he was unaware... but rest assured, he desired something for this trouble. He needed certain materials, specialized metals and computer components, biological agents, things he needed in order to make his bombs... His reserves were depleting rapidly as were his his means of creating them, what with all his resources going into creating HIVE Academy once again... With this mission, he will be able to fight once more at full strength without threatening his reserves...

...And the results of this theft...? Well... Historians were more interested in that kinda thing than himself. Slapping the guard's hand on the panel, the green light of approval would flash, the massive, multi-sealed metal-door unsealing with the groan of strained steel, the hiss of hydraulic locks... and the sickening CRACK of Bark slamming the head of his new friend HARD into the panel, smashing it. After all, he didn't want any boys-in-blue getting in the way while the adults were working.

Bark would step into a VAST, circular chamber of flat metal replicating a cylinder, a large, round platform elevated about 10 meters off the ground in the center with a glass-container holding a black-red computer-chip, one about the size of Bark's hand. This was the mighty Overload...? Well... suffice it to say he was underwhelmed.

"Well, hello there, precious..." Bark would whisper softly, glancing around as the scanners in his mask surveyed the room for potential dangers, switching between sensory/infrared modes. "Kept you waiting, huh...?"

With DOMA now in full force on the streets, Robin and his friends were forced underground. While Jump for the most part probably still saw them as the heroes they were, DOMA and the government at large had a completely different opinion- politics at it's finest. But they weren't going to go quietly, they were going to protect this city. As far as he knew, DOMA hadn't done anything that they already hadn't or couldn't. The Police could tell you if it was as easy as showing up and waving your gun everywhere, the titans wouldn't be needed. So here he was, out on patrol. Keeping to the shadows and rooftops, Robin couldn't help but suddenly feel like he was back in Gotham under Batman. Being forced to lurk in the shadows again because the law saw what he did illegal... yeah the parallels were all there.

They had to all be especially careful now, they couldn't just go out into public any more for example. And not everyone was so capable of blending in. It was almost required that Raven go along with someone else for her power to transport them to and from. This also meant that they couldn't ALL be always out and about to decrease DOMA's chances of catching any of them. So naturally he was out on his own. This wasn't his first rodeo after all, and he was being careful. Very careful. Robin though outside the tower, had managed to upgrade the communicators with Cyborg's help. In essence, still being able to listen in on potential silent alarms. It also helped that he had his computer on hand and was scanning each block as he moved, until he finally got a hit.

Robin using his grappling hook, went up higher and scaled the building where the silent alarm had gone off. Once on the roof, he started making his way into the vents. He had been in these kinds of places before, and a quick computer search would remind him what was actually here. Overload. One of the terrible trio who had escaped along with all the other criminals during the nation-wide breakout, until he was captured again shortly before this entire thing with DOMA. The prison hadn't been completely back up and running yet so temporary cells had to be used, and Overload being a chip here seemed like the best place. That was the only notable thing he could think of as to why someone was breaking into this place here.

Silently slipping out through another vent, he kept up high and positioned himself above the door to the room as Bark came in. Robin's eyes widened as he saw the helmet. That was HIVE regulation. How was that even possible? HIVE had been out of commission since they beat Brother Blood. It was that surprise that enabled Bark to get further into the room than Robin had intended. Robin would then kick off from his hiding place, gracefully maneuvering his body into a kick intended to try and take Bark out in one go. If that didn't work, Robin would pull out his bo-staff at the ready. Now he was trying to quickly people out before police or DOMA came by... he really was acting more like Batman...

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Bark's movement tracker went off Bark had started making his way towards the center elevated platform, indicating someone was closing in on him! Bah... He should have known he had tripped some sort of alarm... It made sense considering he was opening the door to the chamber. No doubt that would send some signal somewhere... What shocked him though... was how quickly the person was closing in on him... almost as if it were a projectile being flung through the....

SUDDENLY Bark would THROW himself to the side, just as someone's boot slipped RIGHT past his head, the HIVE agent's training coming into play as he ducked into a roll, allowing him to transition smoothly and gracefully BACK to his feet, the infiltrator bringing up his staff defensively... as Robin raised his own. Bark stared the person before him, shocked... shocked that a titan had approached him so soon, that they were still bold enough to fight crime with a literal army outside looking for people like them!

"Heh...." Bark smirked. "How's it goin' bird-man? Haven't clipped them wings yet, I see." Oh, it was too perfect. Alone (for now at least) with one of the scum that destroyed his home... that took away his only place of rest, that scattered the people who seemed to care about him. Oh, how his blood BOILED for revenge... hot enough to nearly break through his cool facade... Nearly. The Mastermind was here in his hands... now all he had to do was CRUSH him!

"So! Is that pole you just pulled from your spandex, or are you just happy to see me?" Bark joked, his voice adding a venomous bite to each word. "'Cause... Uh... I don't swing that way."

Robin frowned as his surprise attack had failed. The HIVE helmet didn't mean he was a grunt, though he wasn't sure how far a HIVE Trooper would've gotten by himself. That meant he'd definitely have to be careful with this guy. And then he made the bird pun, which was an unusual breath of fresh air. It didn't make up for the titans' situation any but it was still good to be crimefighting instead of dealing with DOMA. Robin couldn't help but also note that this guy sounded like he had a chip on his shoulder. Robin didn't know who he was off the top of his head but chalked it up as being because him and his friends took HIVE down. "You sound upset- what, did HIVE have LOYAL students after all?" Robin shot back with a smirk, there was no need to sound mad about it.

Robin would keep his bo-staff poised at the ready as he'd slowly start to walk along Bark's perimeter. "Was the HIVE 5 not looking for more people? Or were you not up to their standards?" Robin would add, now actually trying to get under Bark's skin aswell as try and get between him and Overload. Right now they both were just posturing, waiting for the other to make a move or make a mistake. Neither of them would have much time though. If Robin got here from a silent alarm, it was only a matter of time until DOMA came looking for them. But who would make the first move?

"Oh, that's rich coming from you, Robin." Bark retorted. "After all, how loyal to your cause can you be if DOMA appears because of you?" Although his face was hidden, one could hear the utter bitter resentment that drenched the Agent's voice. Spiteful, hostile, Bark's sanguine eyes cutting through the opaque lenses lenses that they peered out of as if targeting somewhere soft and vulnerable to hit.

"What a worthless hero you are." He continued, watching Robin, making note of his little dance, trying to circle them so that the vigilante's back was to the target. "The people don't trust you, you've put your own friends in conflict with the federal government, now you're as much of a criminal as I am. Who are you to judge me, boy-wonder, when you can't even keep up your facade of righteousness?"

Bark would dispense with this rotating dance, inching back towards his goal with his staff raised before him in a stalwart guard, strong, dark bark sprouting over his limbs like gauntlets, greaves and boots, each already filling his limbs with strength!

Suddenly, Bark would lunge RIGHT at Robin, bringing his staff around in a QUICK rounding strike at his head as if he were trying to take it right off before bringing it around again towards the acrobat's body, striking him right through the middle, each with a force of 5 tons each!

"How many of your own people are you going to hurt just to keep doing your job, Robin?" Bark growled as he attacked. "Gonna throw Starfire under the bus? More than you already have, I mean, by letting her follow you to oblivion. What about Beast-Boy? I bet the feds would LOVE to get their hands on your little pet. Cyborg perhaps...? What do you think the government will do when they get a hold of THAT technology? Strip him for parts, that's what. And it'll be all your fault."

Sounded like he wasn't wrong in assuming that's what the chip on his shoulder was. Too bad it seemed like he was the only one, even the Hive 5 had moved on. But now he was getting into some more verbal jabs. All he was doing was just trying to make him mad, he'd tell himself. His grip tightening aroun his weapon was the only clue that there was alittle something Bark was saying that was bothering him. He wasn't holding his friends to helping him, and he listened to their opinions or thoughts on the matter of DOMA. They decided to stay with him so much of what Bark was saying was literally, just hot air.

Bark was the first to break their little dance, growing wood over his body. Robin only briefly thought of Poison Ivy for a moment before ducking under Bark's first attack. Robin then kicked off from the ground, acrobatically bending and twisting his body in the air as he soared over Bark. He retalliated with some quick jabs of the head of his bo-stafff before backing up only alittle. Robin was testing the waters. "You know- if you had said any of this back while I was chasing after Slade, you may have had a point. But that's in the past now- even now, you only sound like someone mad that I busted their friends," Robin deflected the verbal barbs as one hand slipped under his cape.

The next move happened almost in the blink of an eye, Robin had grabbed a birdarang and quickly hurled at Bark's head, mostly as a distraction as he lounged in with a couple swipes of his bo-staff.

Bark's attacks RIPPED through the space Robin occupied like a scythe through stalks of wheat, the raw power in his arms easily capable of rending this mere, basic man in two... were he there to receive such blows! No, such things weren't in Robin's nature if he could help it, instead favoring his superior acrobatics in order to gain an edge against the HIVE agent! Bark's first strike would REND the space above Robin's head as he ducked below, his second met with an acrobatic flip overhead, a dozen quick pokes with is staff FLYING down towards Bark's head... only instead to connect with the wooden armor instead! The metal extension-staff Robin sported would bounce off the iron-like hide of Bark's armor, the the force behind each blow either being completely deflected or absorbed!

Similar to his own physical deftness, Robin would deflect Bark's verbal assaults back onto him, commenting on how hurt he sounded, that he sounded mad that his friends were "busted."

....

Yeah.

You could say that.

Robin would hurl is bladed birdarang at Bark's head and the man would seemingly do nothing to respond!

*CHANNNNNNG!*

Suddenly, half of Bark's face was completely enveloped in wood, catching the metal projectile before it could even touch flesh!

"You didn't 'bust' my friends." Bark would respond, Robin HAMMERING down upon Bark's body with swipe after swipe of his staff! One connected with the side of Bark's armored head, bouncing HARD of it's face with no noticeable effect! The second would SLAM into Bark's ribs, his armor not able to grow in time to compensate! His body would bend inward as Robin's weapon crashed into his form, armor QUICKLY growing around the damage site and the rest of him... until he was completely covered.

"...But what would you know about losing them? All you care about is filling prisons." Suddenly, Bark would hurl something of his own Robin's way, a small handful of oval-shaped bombs no bigger than a finger-nail, Bark making a quick DASH towards the chip the moment they left his hand!

...And the very next moment they would detonate.... FILLING the room with AGONIZINGLY blinding light and a deafening BANG!

That prior thought of Poison Ivy was still there in Robin's mind. Except he didn't recall any time where she grew bark-like skin to ward off attack. That would've made her much more dangerous, in his humble opinion but he felt like he had landed some blows that mattered before Bark had covered himself. Then he accused Robin of only caring about filling prisons. But before Robin could argue, he threw something his way! Explosives? At this close? Gas bombs? In any case he didn't want to find out what they were and so, took to the air while reaching for his grappling hook. With it he would pull himself up higher to try get over Bark just as the flash-bang like bursts went off and played havoc with his vision.

He now only had spatial memory and guess work as to how far he was from Bark and the chip, so responded in kind with flash bangs of his own. Trying to toss them as close to Bark as he could in passing, given how his vision was messed up. Robin would then release the grappling hook from it's perch and manage to just get his feet back on the ground. Robin frantically tried to get his barings back before trying anything else...

Bark's helmet blocked out most of the noise erupting from his flash-bang bombs and the view-ports filtered out most of the blinding light... but even the most novel technology couldn't fully negate the effects of explosions in their entirety. The shock of the blasts, from having exploded so close to the former HIVE agent, radiated through his body, his muscles slackening agonizingly, his bones jittering in their flesh-suits, the sound-waves bouncing off the metalic walls and floors an innumerable amount of times, their countable reverberations lost in one another. Bark's head was spinning even if his ears weren't ringing, his eyes rapidly blinking even if there were not holes in his vision... Robin was no longer standing where he had been... and Bark himself had work to do. It was amazing how hatred for another human being could lucid a person up, how the utter burning in one's heart could awaken one from a disorienting shock. Bark's sanguine eyes gradually began to sharpen again with focus as he looked up towards Overload's contained chip, a few small cracks dotting the formerly smooth, flawless surface of the glass that surrounded it. Contained sound had been known to have... disruptive affects on just fragile elements, something easily exploited by a thief such as himself.

...There was no more need to be careful anymore... not with that Titan skulking about (wherever he now as) and with that silent alarm screaming out to those who could listen. Reaching into his pocket again, his bark-armor falling off his figure, the HIVE agent would withdraw a small, walnut-sized explosive, a steel-ball with an 'H' on one side and a button on the other. With enough explosive power in this little number, Bark could blow a car to shreds and could EASILY smash whatever might've been holding overload. With the chip free from its insulator, there was no doubt in his mind the creature could make use of the surrounding electric sources surrounding him (lights, circuits, etc) and make his own escape...

HURLING the explosive like a base-ball, Bark's explosive would ROCKET towards the class container, BLOWING IT AWAY to the tiny shards that made it up... unless it was stopped, of course. Contact bombs were very hard to disarm without setting it off prematurely... and Robin would've been a great fool to even try.

Either way... Bark still won... and Robin's credibility would crumble, either by his hand directly or indirectly... and it was all so sweet. Revenge... at least a small part of what he was owed, would be repaid this day.

JUMPING back as soon as his explosive left his hand, Bark would withdraw with a series of quick back-steps, attempting to put as much distance between himself and the potential explosion as necessary! After all... this explosion would rock the world of ANYONE close enough to hear it.

Unfortunately for Robin, he only had the fact he had been in motion before Bark's flashbangs went off- and even though he had learned how to fight in a dark cave with his eyes closed, did not have the luxury of a helmet to help him. Needless to say Robin couldn't in any practical fashion prevent what Bark was doing now, even if he could clearly see him doing it- he could only deduce correctly. The explosion, glass shattering was probably more than enough indication that he was right, with Overload surging to life and drawing in electricity AND electronics from his surroundings. "RRRAAAGH! Overload is free!" The electrical chip-based nightmare stated triumphantly, regardless of the fact he had nothing to do with it personally.

The only thing Robin could do now to even try and keep Overload from potentially escaping was to throw a low-yield explosive at one of the walls. It would go off on impact, releasing a spray of water that would miss hitting Overload directly but would pool on the floor. Overload would growl in "pain" before retreating from it, locking his eye onto Robin. He'd raises his limbs up and Robin was put on the defense as Overload sent "bolts" of lightning streaking in different directions- Overload was a giant bright target so Robin's recovering vision didn't have as much trouble seeing where he was in comparison to Bark.

Speaking of, as he dove into a roll to avoid Overload, he pulled out a handful of smoke bombs and let them go in all directions until they went off and started filling the room. Robin needed to buy himself some time and so managed to pull out his communicator to try and call for backup. But while he manged to avoid any serious harm from Overload, his communicator had not and was currently dead. So his only option was to atleast try and bring down The HIVE agent, as he didn't think Overload cared one way or the other right now. Robin would move as quickly and quietly as he could, keeping low as he tried to move in on the last place he had seen Bark.

...It truly was a wonder to Bark that with all the power Overload could summon so quickly that he was ever defeated and placed in confinement like this. In fact, with how much voltage Overload possessed, Bark had to retreat a solid meter or two from where he stood from the creature, the air crackling with charged Ozone, raw electric POWER making up the creatures shape. It was in an almost ape-like humanoid-form with a massive upper-body with arms as long or longer than it's legs... if you could call them that. Its movements were surprisingly fluid, perhaps even unnervingly so as its electric shape wasn't confined by limits in movement. Bark had to admit... there was a certain beauty to this creature, how its brilliant form shined a cyan-blue light across the entire chamber, how it's mere presence amounted to an entire facility's worth of watts. With this much power at its command, Bark had little doubt that Overload would be able to overcome a mere human like Robin with little difficult...

...Bark would stand corrected in a matter of moments. As if Robin knew where the water-pipelines within the facility might be, he hurled a small explosive towards the wall, rupturing it open and allowing a quick spurt of water to blast towards Overload, the creature recoiling as the aquatic fluid absorbed a minor portion of his charge. Ah... he could see now why the Titans could defeat this beast... trapping it in one of electricity's most effective conductors. How utterly fitting.

"Damn Titans." Bark muttered to himself as he reached across his chest, pressing a button that rested upon a harness that was strapped upon it. "They have an answer to everything, don't they...?"

Well... Robin had given away his intentions AND position with that little explosive... he intended to stay and fight... Good. That meant he could test his third bomb on its intended target for the first time without risk. With the push of that button, one of two coconut-sized explosives fell out of harness they rested in, SLAMMING into the floor with a harsh BANG at Bark's heels. With another quick movement, Bark would hurl 5 small walnut-sized explosives at the entrance, each one utterly decimating the metal they impacted, causing them all to collapse inward, blocking the doorway with hunks of metal!

...Now there was nowhere for Robin to go... Or the gas that would soon pollute this room.

Robin would answer this with a gas of his own, SMOKE pellets which, without a consistent air-flow, would very quickly begin to fill up the room with visible, opaque smoke, overload's blasts towards Robin becoming more and more wild... while Bark simply stood still and waited. Reaching up to the side of his mask, Bark switched on the infrared sensors... wincing as Overload LIT UP HIS EYES like a camera-flash, forced to turn away and scan elsewhere! He needn't move from this spot... not if Robin thought to take him out... after all, the moment he got within 30 feet would spell his doom!

Catching sight of Robin's shape... or what looked like it through his sensors, Bark would extend his hand outward, vines SHOOTING from his his pointer/middle-fingertips, intent on wrapping around the neck of the Titan-leader and drag him... drag him within the sensors of the 3rd bomb behind Bark, to trip the sensors so that neurotoxin would be released throughout the room! Bark's mask and heavily clothed suit would stave off the toxin so long as he didn't stand around in the middle of it for long and Overload doesn't breath... so Bark would wait... and and hope Robin was gullible enough to be a hero.

Robin may have proceeded as intended if he hadn't heard a sudden slamming sound, with nothing else making itself known. It wasn't Overload, he was the only thing still partially visible through the smoke only because of his size. Robin definitely put his guad up when he heard an explosion go off somewhere else, and what sounded like a wall or something collapsing in on itself. He was sealing the door to the room huh? Wouldn't that come back to bite him? Overload was moving again, feeling the growing pool of water touch his foot and cause him some more agony. He moved himself upwards, using static cling to... cling to the ceiling above for a moment as he glared down for a moment as if trying to find Robin before deciding it was time to leave- even he realized the water would keep spreading and there'd be no where for him to stand.

Robin meanwhile with his almost recovered vision, decided to close his eyes instead and focused. His decision to wait would pay off as he sensed the sudden movement of a couple somethings coming toward him. Robin pulled another birdarang out and slashed at the tips of the vines, moving back and around toward the other way. Bark-like armor, odd looking equipment, and now extendable vines. Robin put his bo-staff away and instead would pull out one more birdarang and form a sword with them, something he didn't do too often but against the vines it seemed like the best option. "So let me get this straight. You're fine with your HIVE friends trying to destroy the city with a tsunami, most likely killing thousands of people atleast- but your problem is that me and my friends saved those people and put an end to what HIVE was doing?" Robin called over to Bark, keeping his guard up as he circled around the opposite side of the room. The vines coming after him told him something else, Bark could see him still in some fashion, probably the helmet if he had to guess.

If he had known that ahead of time, he may have reconsidered dropping some smoke if not for Overload being around. Still, the only easily accessible escape was now currently blocked. He needed to end this sooner rather than later before DOMA finally got here- funny how they were trying to do the crimefighting and yet they still took so long to actually get to the crime scene. That didn't mean he could take his time, he needed to think of a way to end this before they finally did get here. Unfortunately without knowing what was waiting for him in the smoke by Bark, time was not on his side.

Bark 'tsked' in distaste as his fingers were severed at the tips Robin's swift and decisive action with his bladed boomerang-like weapon slicing through the green, muscle-like vines with smooth and accurate precision. the heads would remain on the ground at Robin's feet, green, sap-like fluid leaking out, mixing with the water that was still dribbling onto the floor as Bark's own vines retracted, returning into his fingers, not enough damage done to translate onto himself... yet. Calling out from a void that, no doubt disoriented the hero, Robin would again try to justify himself with a rhetorical question, offering up the traditional trolley-problem and one of the HIVE's greatest accomplishments and failures in the sonic generator. It was logically sound... But Bark wasn't thinking logically. All he heard was hypocrisy. They both knew (in Bark's mind, at least) that Robin, were the situations reversed, would feel the same. That if the Titans were slain, dismantled, jailed with the only cold comfort being a few nameless faces existing, Robin would kill the one who had made that decision. Bark felt his blood boil in his veins stepping towards the self-righteous, now sword-wielding hero, his teeth grinding against one another as he clenched his jaw.

"Oh, spare me. Stop trying to make me reconcile with the ghost of Christmas Past, Robin." Bark would quickly toss another one of his Mk. 1 explosives at robin's feet, spinning it like a frisbee as he threw it, attempting to blow the young hero to bits without getting close! The explosion would rip open the floor, the water now having a drain to pour into... electrical circuits and outlets revealed to the water flowing in... potentially permanently damaging the circuitry of the building!

"You Titans cause just as much collateral as we do. Property damage, resisting arrest, sometimes even killing people who get in your way. Look at you, tossing around your explosives and powers as if everyone's as tough as you. Look at your kill-count. It's higher than mine, hero."

If Robin was able to dodge effectively, Bark would reach back towards the coconut-bomb, still arming its sensors, each of his 5 vines extending from  his fingertips, wrapping around it's smooth, round surface like some sort of sling!

"Perhaps if you truly wished to understand, I would tell you... I would tell you of the good people you left homeless now, without a leader, causing harm to themselves and others because they have nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Perhaps I would tell you of grade-schoolers separated from their families because of their enrollment in HIVE... an act of mercy, or so your kind convinced themselves. Perhaps I'd tell you of someone who's only family was dismantled at the seams by a group of 5, of someone left to try and exist in a world that wanted him gone from the very start. I could tell you those things... But what good would it do...? I'd be wasting my breath... And you should really hold yours!"

THROWING his hand forward, the bomb, attached to the vines would follow like the mace on the end of a morning star, LAUNCHING at Robin like a wrecking-ball of death! Even if he managed to dodge out of the way... or even if it hit, the metal casing of the explosive would open up like a blooming flower, a light, near-clear smoke billowing out of a small sprinkler-like generator, mingling with that left by Robin's smoke-bomb... becoming near indistinguishable.

"Neurotoxin. I hope you know how to recover from full-body paralysis, Robin... because in just a minute or two of exposure, your body will betray you."

Assuming everything would proceed as planned, Bark would fade into the smoke, backing away in order to put as much space between himself and ground zero as quickly as he could!

Robin's guard was still up as he kept his senses tuned for anything else coming after him through the smoke. Then Bark started talking, which was good. This would've been more nerve wracking if he didn't reveal where he was, well not exactly where he was but Robin now knew what direction to look. That was the only reason he saw the explosives coming, diving to the side just before the resulting explosion would send him farther than he originally planned. His landing was not smooth or ideal, he was probably going to feel it in the morning as he managed to get back to his feet. What Bark had been talking about earlier could've been easily disregarded as him just trying to get under his skin, but now it was starting to irritate him. As much as he would've loved to debate this, the threat of explosives and who knows what else kind of made that not possible. "It's people like you who decide to use their powers against innocent people, just because you can or because a certain number of people wronged you! We do not intentionally kill people but our job is made harder when criminals like you endanger the lives of others to save your own skin!" Robin argued, his temper rising now.

Because of DOMA rolling up to his door and more or less forcing him and his friends underground like The Hive 5, he hadn't really the time to properly vent his frustration over how they were being treated. Were they wrong? It was more complicated than that- but how they were going about it was definitely not right in his mind. Bark went off on a tirade, which was a clear and cut case of what Robin just said. The world wronged him, and now he wanted to get even. And he didn't care who he hurt to do so. But the last thing he said suddenly sent alarms off in his head. Robin didn't wait long to find out, instead quickly reaching into his utility belt for something as he rolled beneath the swinging vines. When he came back up, he sprinted toward where Bark's voice was coming from. But he was now wearing a SMALL GAS MASK that covered his nose, and the lower part of his face.

Unlike Bark he wasn't fully covered, so if anything it'd only buy him some more time depending on the duration it lingered in the air. "Maybe if you took the time to actually talk to someone, instead of taking it all out on people who haven't done anything to you, you'd realize you're trying to justify intentional murder on a grand scale as opposed to accidents! Accidents caused by people like you, who won't let themselves be reasoned with who would rather throw a tantrum because someone like me isn't letting you get your way!" Robin would continue hefting his sword like a javelin. He'd leap into the air and throw it downwards in the area where Bark was- he wasn't aiming to actually hit Bark. This was because attached to the blade of his Birdarang sword was a shock disc with a delayed timer.

And at the last possible moment, Robin would leap into the air again to avoid the disc releasing a surge of electricity all around it and into the floor by where Bark was. Robin was going to try and end this- and had his Eskrima Sticks in hand to prove it!


Meanwhile...

DOMA as you'd expect was indeed on the move toward their location. But with the constant snow that no one had figured out or tried to get rid of, this made it more difficult for them to actually get there. Plus the weird little mased minions were being unnusually aggressive toward them, and with the snow it was not recommended for helecopters. All of these were nothing but excuses. Excuses of weak, unprepared and inferior lifeforms. The only DOMA agent not affected by either the snow, or the Steve Shenanigans was an AI housed in a robotic shell- yes HE knew what they were, he couldn't remember how or why but he DID know what they were.

He used his thrusters and jump jets to move from rooftop to rooftop, taking shortcuts through alleyways when he needed to. His human "handlers" had finished preparing him for field testing, and were overjoyed when they got to put him out into the field. CAP would've been more furious or insulted at being treated as a mere tool again- but he could only bide his time for now. Let them think he was subservient, and that their pathetic attempts to control him had worked. It would be much easier in the end... and he was looking forward to that time. CAP would be nearing his destination, not much longer to go before he got to relish the thrill of combat once again!

"Look at you, unwilling to take responsibility." Bark scoffed, Robin being as dismissive as he'd expected. After all, what kind of person would actually listen to their enemy? What kind of person would truly begin to comprehend what they had taken from the other? It would take a strong man, a smart man, someone with the ability to transcend themselves to do such a thing... What else could be expected from some self-righteous bird-man who dealt with people like one would with trash?

"Its always someone else's fault isn't it? Its so easy to think that way when there isn't anyone to hold you accountable." Bark continued, HURLING his gas-bomb Robin's way! The boy-wonder's agility was as admirable as it was a weapon, the young hero ducking and rolling beneath the villain's weapon, but the proximity was enough to activate it's sensor! Like a flower opening up on a warm summer day, the bomb would pop open, releasing a light, noxious fume of toxin mixing in with Robin's smoke, Bark's vines snapping at his finger-tips as he retreated back, watching Robin closely... He was withdrawing something from his belt... but it was something the villain couldn't quite dissern, his infared only able to detect the raw shape of Robin, rather than pick up on more important details! Given his movements, however, Bark concluded he had covered his face with something, attempting to buy himself time...

...He really did have everything inside that utility belt, didn't he...? Annoying, but it would not save him. Even as they stood here, trading barbs, the poison would begin filling up the air around them, inevitably seeping into the skin of every unfortunate human not covered from head to toe in air-tight seals. Robin's loose, exposing uniform would provide only the barest of protections... and all Bark had to do now as wait him out.

"I guess I'll add your name to that number, then." Bark growled as Robin attempted a well-meaning, if half-hearted attempt to appeal to his morality. It was like trying to talk down an elephant from charging, a bull from rushing down an arrogant fighter. He had this moment stewing in his mind for years now... and he was going to let it all burn Robin's nerves. In response to this threat, Robin would hurl a blade at Bark... or rather, next to him, the sword impaling itself into the steel, water-soaked floor of the room... He needn't even move to avoid the attack, his eyes following it as it fell  beside him... his sensors only detecting the electrical charge... when it was too late to react.

"SSSSSSAAAAAAUGH!" Bark roared, his mask JOLTING and short-circuiting as its sensors and monitors were completely overloaded by the electrical charge, his own nervous system similarly effected as his body convulsed agonizingly where it stood... before falling back HARD onto the floor, black smoke billowing out from beneath the lining of the mask. The seal was broken... sensors offline... energy reserves, minimal... Bark could barely register the damage reports coming in from both body and technology, his brain scrambled, his muscles agonizingly cramped.