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Absolute Warzone

Late into the night, in a make-shift shanty town in an alley in Johannesburg, South Africa, a man and his very ill wife enter a tent that serves as the temporary headquarters of a major crime baron. He offered his family's jewelry to the criminal, Rudo Dumisani, in exchange for medicine, as the hospitals have become too busy. He agreed to 'end her suffering', but had his henchwomen, Margot and Aliki Marceau, draw their guns on the woman. That's when Nightwing, the guardian of Johannesburg, bursts through the women and kick the guns out of their hands. As the couple escape, Nightwing battles Dumisani and his toadies. Dumisani shows off his strength by taking one of Nightwing's sickles to the arm, but the vigilante remotely activates a grappling hook that launches from the tip of the handle and reels Dumisami into a wall. Police Chief Puntrud, his men, and UN security officers arrest Dumisami and his goons and the woman was taken to a medical center. A few weeks ago, several people in the city had been reported with crippling chemical poisoning, and the police and infrastructure inspectors discovered a huge chemical leak under a processing plant in the district of Bluehaven that led into the water supply. The neighborhood was evacuated and a perimeter was set up by UN relief workers. The people who had houses in Bluehaven moved in with friends and family elsewhere in Johannesburg, or otherwise set up camps. The hospitals became overrun with victims of the poisoned water or injured in incidents of civil unrest, not to mention criminals trying to take advantage of people's desperation in these times. Recently, though, something had been breeching the perimeter and attacking the city beyond Bluehaven. Nightwing helped the police kill a mutated rat that was created by the chemical leaking into the sewer systems, and mutated animal attacks began to ramp up. In response, the UN sent over a detatchments of agents of SHADE (Special Hazards Assessment and DEfense), an arm of the US organization CADMUS, lead by an Asian woman going by the codename Father Time. They are also accompanied by Dr. Magnus, an elderly African American scientist providing a series of humanoid machines he's designed for SHADE to work safely in the most dangerous areas of the disaster zone. As SHADE and the UN erect an even stronger wall to prevent more mutated animals from attacking the people again, Father Time makes contact with Nightwing. She says SHADE cannot arrest Nightwing, since he's a legal resident of South Africa and they work for the US, but she is willing to do something else for him if he's willing to follow her orders and keep the peace as a temporary "concerned citizen" agent. Nightwing agreed. A couple of nights later, Rich Grayson, the secret identity of Nightwing, and his friends come upon a rock concert being played elsewhere in the city. The band in question is "Firebrand", headed by lead guitarist and vocalist Izaak Crowe. Firebrand was playing a concert, with the boisterous frontman Crowe spouting lines calling for the UN to pull out of Johannesburg and let the SA government take back control, and after the concert, Rich confronted Izaak backstage. Rich berated Izaak for condemning the UN's "interference in basic rights to privacy" when he, a millionare, came to SA to play music instead of providing food, medicine, or anything else he could afford ("Hell, Hippolyta rolled up her sleeves in times of need!") Izaak rebutted by saying that private citizens are more than capable of recovering from disaster on their own and government overseas assistance is merely a front for making people docile and too reliant on them. Rich says that the most afflicted area of the toxic spread, Bluehaven, is a predominantly poor area and people living there have no money to pay for aide, but Izaak "wouldn't know that since you had no money problems in your childhood." But then, a calamity reached Rich's ears from the arena as more mutated animals attacked. As Nightwing, Rich aided SHADE in fighting the mutants. Some of them had more of the chemicals on them, and some splashed on Firebrand's drummer Peter. With the mutants driven off and a large chunk of Peter's flesh cut off by SHADE scientists to prevent the mutation from spreading on him further, they were able to devise a way of neutralizing the mutagen. Donning a biohazard suit, Nightwing joined SHADE agents and a contingent of Magnus' robots in entering the restricted zone to neutralize the toxins and kill the mutant animals. Unfortunately, Izaak managed to disguise himself as a UN scientist in a hazard suit and follow them in. The troops managed to get into the processing plant and clear out all remaining mutants, before planting a bomb that would clear out the remaining toxins in the blast zone. Izaak dove into the giant lake of chemicals, then emerging with super-powers! Izaak used his new flame powers to attack the SHADE agents and their robots, NOW ranting that SHADE wants to use the chemicals to create mutant soldiers for the US government and the bomb they planted was going to drestroy the city to cover up their crimes. Nightwing bested Izaak in the end, shoving both of his sickles into his shoulders use their grappling hooks to reel Crowe into a catwalk, head-first. The bomb went off, neutralizing the chemicals successfully without harming humans or normal animals or damaging infrasructure. Izaak Crowe is arrested by SHADE, Firebrand disbands and goes home, and the UN succeeds in bringing Johannesburg and the neighborhood of Bluehaven back to normal within a few months. As for Nightwing, Father Time upheld her end of the bargain and pulled some strings to Nightwing and his friends, Cori, Victor, and Logan, legal access to and residence of the United States. Nightwing didn't tell her, however, that they're going to the US to find another friend of theirs, Rajya, who is being held against her will by her abusive father...

Notes:

* Based on the mainstream storyline "Battle For Bludhaven".

* More info on Absolute Nightwing:

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* Rudo Dumisani is based on Roland "Blockbuster" Desmond, with Aliki and Margot based on the criminal tagteam "Double Dare".

** Their inclusion in this side story is based on The Black Baron and his female minions from a sub-plot in Battle For Bludhaven.

* Chief Puntrud of the JPD is based on Chief Redhorn of the Bludhaven Police.

* "Father Time" being an Asian woman here is based on his third incarnation in the regular comics, what with him being a Doctor Who reference and all.

* Doc Magnus' AbDC background will be explained in a future post.

** Magnus' inclusion in SHADE's efforts is a reference to Chemo, a villain in the main comics who opposed Magnus (specifically his Metal Men robots) and helped destroy Bludhaven in Infinite Crisis, which led to Battle For Bludhaven.

* Izaak Crowe is an amalgamation of a whiny musician of the same name from "Batman: Fortunate Son" and moronic flame-blasting anarchist Andre Twist from the main comics.

** Izaak will return as a supervillain called Firebrand, named for his disbanded rock band.

** Peter, the drummer, is based on Monolith, a former DC character now owned by Image. The mutagen trying to turn his flesh into organic mineral is based on Monolith being a golem.

* "Hippolyta" was the stage name of Diana Creon before she left showbiz and became Wonder Woman.