Tony's Secret Lab, Abandoned Warehouse District, Wednesday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

Topher flung the door open with more force than he'd ever realized he was capable of, his heart pounding. That was partially from having run all the way here while crying, though the helpless grief and rage battling inside him was also a close second. He couldn't remember ever feeling like this before -- like he'd just lost something completely irreplacable and there was nothing he could do. He couldn't fix it with science or programming or anything without at least a scan of Tony's brain and a wildly undeserved medical degree. It was just... just the worst thing ever.

He kicked the floor, and then, finding that unhelpful, threw the phone and that stupid orb he was still holding onto the ground and hurled a hard punch at the wall.

Fuck, that hurt.

But it did kill some of the helpless feeling, at least. Now there was just... grief.

With a choked sob, Topher collapsed down to the floor with his back to the wall, cradling his bleeding hand and just hating everything.

[[I'M SORRY. HE JUST HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS. for two, and NFB.]]

Comments

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Okay, so maybe patrolling the island wasn't the smartest thing to do, but arguably neither was being anywhere outdoors in Gotham City after dark. Or near dark. Or most of the time at all.

Look, at least Robin wasn't poking at the cloud, unlike some people.

Still, information or the lack thereof had been gathered, and she wanted a point of comparison, so -- still in costume -- she let herself into Tony's lab.

"Hello, the super-secret high-tech headquarters! This is not your friendly neighborhood pizza delivery guy, but at least I have the friendly part down!"

[dollpocalypse]

Hi, Robin. Welcome to the saddest lab ever. Currently occupied by a crying Topher and a Warren who was probably doing something else.

Topher lifted his head up for long enough to see that someone was at the door, then swiped impatiently at his wet face in an effort to, you know, see. "What do you want?" he managed, his voice coming out raspy and miserable.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"I thought I'd come check in on Tony," she answered, eyes narrowing slightly in a hard to see through the mask way. "Assuming he's not out there poking at the weird cloud . . ."

Sadly, she knew him a little too well.

[dollpocalypse]

And now there was sobbing. Thank you, Robin.

"Get out!" Topher yelled, hurling his phone in her general direction. (Good thing he couldn't really aim.) "He's not here, he's not anywhere, just get the fuck out."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Robin didn't have to duck out of the way, which was a good thing, because she stopped cold when she heard what he was yelling.

"Oh, like hell I will." She took a step toward him instead, not cracking her knuckles although there was some finger-flexing going on. "If you know something about where he is, I highly suggest you share those little tidbits of information with me."

There were reasons Bruce said her persuasion skills needed work.

[dollpocalypse]

"He's not here!" Topher yelled, getting to his feet now. "Just go away!"

And somewhere in Kennedy's dimension, Dawn Summers was being outwhined.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"If he's not here," and now Robin's voice was going not quite low and dangerous but closer to that than it had been, "it might be in your best interest as much as mine to be a little more specific than that."

She was learning some interesting new interrogation techniques! She just didn't think she should use them on Tony's friends.

You know. Unless she had conclusive proof that he was evil.

[dollpocalypse]

"I don't even know you! I don't know who you are or whether you're some kind of, of, of supervillain trying to kill him, but you can't, so just -- just -- "

Aaaaaand back to sobbing. Someone had a really great hold over his emotions. Or... really not at all.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Oh, for --" Robin slapped a gloved hand loudly over her face and sighed.

"It would," she intoned, looking up at the ceiling and not actually caring that this wasn't really her head voice, "be entirely too cliché of me to smack him in the face and yell 'GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, MAN?' Wouldn't it?"

[dollpocalypse]

That was enough to get him to at least be a little more quiet about the sobbing, actually.

Frustrated and not really aware enough to grasp the cliché, Topher demanded, "What are you even -- what are you even talking about?!"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Robin sighed and crossed her arms, tapping one foot in an overly obvious way.

"An explanation? For the melodramatics? It'd be nice."

Then, less certainly, and with genuine concern:

"If something's happened to him, I want to know."

[dollpocalypse]

"I don't even know if you're his friend!" Topher yelled. "I'm not just gonna, gonna give out his information to some random stupid nosy stranger in a stupid fucking costume."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Oh, geez, genius boy! Rub two brain cells together! Some random stupid stranger," Robin said through her teeth, "is going to have the access codes to get into the lab?"

She didn't actually reach out and grab him by the shirt, but boy, was she getting close to trying.

[dollpocalypse]

Okay. Now he was... actually done crying. At least for the time being. So -- it was someone, some blonde girl, who could get into Tony's lab and wore a costume and yelled at him and and and --

There. It clicked. "You're -- whatsherface. His girlfriend."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"I --"

She snapped her mouth shut and sighed.

"I see my use of 'genius' wasn't completely sarcastic." The mask wouldn't just come off, but she could at least retract the lenses. "Yeah, Topher, it's me. Which I'll thank you to keep to yourself if you have any desire to not have me hit you in the face with a brick."

Which was too much like kicking him while he was down, and she didn't have the heart for that, so Robin -- Stephanie -- found a perch on the arm of the couch.

"Were you there? Did you see?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher watched the lenses retract for just long enough to confirm that it was her, then looked away. Finally he sank down onto the floor, picking at the cuff of his sleeve.

There wasn't any of that anger anymore. Just a quiet, lost feeling.

"I saw."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Okay, no more petty bickering or smartassery. Time to act like the sidekick of the world's greatest detective, and one who deserved the cape at that.

"How much can you tell me about what happened?" she asked, tucking her knees up against her chest as she rocked back and forth on the couch arm. (The rocking was to give her something to focus on and therefore not fall apart. "Did he do something to provoke it, or did it just grab him, or what?"

[dollpocalypse]

Sure, Steph. Ask Topher about whether something was provoked. Since he was so good at discerning that kind of thing.

"He touched it." Topher rotated his bracelet around on his wrist, squeezing his eyes shut. "That weird cloud thing. He sent tech up to see what it was, and it didn't work, so he... touched it."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Stephanie sighed and rubbed a gloved hand over her face. "I swear to crap, if he still existed right now I'd strangle him so hard for that . . ."

Except for the part where she couldn't, because he didn't, now, and she couldn't hit something that made you disappear with a brick at least for revenge. Her sigh turned into a half-hysterical laugh, then a whimper.

"Oh god."

[dollpocalypse]

"You'd -- you'd better not!" Topher exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and over to the couch so he could aim a punch at her shoulder. "He's -- you don't get to just -- nuh-uh! You just -- just -- leave him alone!"

It was cute how he thought that sounded at all forceful.

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

It was such a good thing Stephanie still had the presence of mind to just make a grab for his wrist instead of going for a disabling hold, wasn't it?

"It's a moot point right now anyway, isn't it?" she snapped. "Now, are you going to just sit here and blubber about it, or take that genius gray matter you love bragging about and use it to try and fix this?"

[dollpocalypse]

Topher crossed his arms over his chest, sullen. "You'd just -- better not hit him," he grumbled. "If we fix it, I'm telling him you said that."

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

"Oh, good, it's so nice to know we're all being mature here," Stephanie said, rolling her eyes. "Adorably disturbing as I find your hangup on my boyfriend, I'm not going to be impressed with your attachment to him if the only thing you're using it for is feeling sorry for yourself."

[dollpocalypse]

"I'm not feeling sorry for himself," Topher snapped. "I just -- he's the only one who could've fixed anything 'cause he's smarter and stronger and everything than anyone else, so -- so -- just shut up!"

[batwaffles.livejournal.com]

Stephanie really couldn't help the incredulous snort that . . . she wouldn't have held back anyway. "You're kidding me, right? I can kick his ass sparring." Which was still kind of a nice feeling, being better at something for once in her life. "Oh my god, Topher, do you hear the reality phone ringing? Get a grip on it! You're basically saying we should all just lie down and die now, and you know what? If that's what you want to do, fine, but when we get him back, because we will, don't expect to get a thank-you gift for your amazing effort in helping."