This whole speed force thing was great. All Digger had to do was wear a silly little bracelet and he could run just as fast as any Flash, at least for short bursts. Yeah, he could really see why those speedy bastards liked it so much and felt all high and mighty all the goddamn time. The wind in your hair, the way you could move without anyone seeing it, get away with all sorts of shit in the blink of an eye and no-one would be any the wiser - if only he could have trialed this in a full, lively and not destroyed and full of aliens city. Man, the felonies he could commit with this power. It wasn't just running fast, either. His reactions were faster, he was thinking faster, perceiving faster. Again, only for short bursts, but it was still amazing.
Made it all the more confusing, of course, when he started flagging, falling behind the others. Him! Their amazing speedster! They should have been struggling to keep up with him! But no, he could tell he was slowing down, having to push harder for the same result.
Well, Harley and Floyd did have a drone and a jetpack to get places, and the other guy was a fucking shark, so perhaps it was just a case of being the one guy who had to run everywhere and, you know, getting tired. So he did what he did best: complained.
To be fair, he had a lot to complain about beyond just being a bit tired. He was covered in alien foetus gunk which, by the way, stank to high hell, his feet hurt, he had a bomb in his spinal column (Waller's fault) and earlier today he had seen Evil Flash rip a man's heart out of his chest.
All in all, he was having a bad day.
The others weren't doing much better - life hung in the balance, the day sucked, and they had to listen to Digger complain constantly, which they had made clear they were sick of almost immediately.
Task Force X was having the closest thing they could to downtime between tasks. They'd cleared out a bunch of terminaut incubators and had stopped for a moment on the rooftop of what used to be an office building, a damaged billboard between them and the skull ship and, for the moment, none of the evil Justice League in sight.
"Boomer, can you shut your hole? I can't hear myself think."
"Thinking's overrated, Harls. Just take it easy and go with the shitshow."
"And end up like you? No thank you."
At that moment, his stomach cramped up badly before growling. He was hungry. Scratch that, he was starving.
It wasn't like Waller hadn't been letting them eat. Sure, everything right now was high stakes and the world was on the cusp of ending, but even she got the picture that if her task force was left to run on fumes, they'd be very poorly suited to the job of fighting off all these aliens and saving the world. He'd definitely eaten today, in the past few hours for sure, but right now it felt like an eternity ago. He felt achy and could taste acid in the back of his throat.
"Is anyone else fucking starving?"
Deadshot groaned, long since sick of the complaints. The other two gave proper responses.
"Nah, I'm good."
"I could eat."
Well, at least Sharko was on his wavelength.
"You just ate, like, half an hour ago." Deadshot pointed out. Digger's stomach insisted it had been way longer than that.
"I am large, and did not find our meal filling."
"And I," Digger jumped in, "I've been runnin' around all over the place, ain't I? While you two got it easy with your stupid flying tech."
Harley seemed more amused than anything else. "Hey, you're the one who chose ta steal the speed force thingy when there was a perfectly good Bat Drone there for the takin'." And really, could he argue with that? He settled for flipping her off before Waller's stupid voice sounded through their earpieces again.
"Task Force X, come in."
There was an overall air of annoyance as Deadshot answered. "We read you, Waller."
"We have an enemy presence in Midtown we need cleared out pronto. Get your butts down there and get clearing."
"We getting a 'please'?" Harley asked.
"No. Get moving. Waller out."
"Pff. No-one has any manners these days."
It was a relatively short jaunt to Midtown, but it still felt rougher on him than before. Maybe he was coming down with something, or all this alien shit was making him sick or some shit.
The Midtown area Waller sent them to was, of course, crawling with stupid terminauts. They'd barely gotten close before the things saw them and opened fire. Task Force X spread out to take them out, and Deadshot yelled something as he split off.
"Don't hold us back, Boomer!"
So shit, he had noticed him flagging. So maybe he had to pick up the pace, work a little harder to not be considered worthless again. So, he pushed through the fuzz in his head, trying to stay alert so he didn't, you know, die.
He was only three dead terminauts deep when one of them got a lucky shot in. He felt the impact against his shoulder blade, the sudden pain enough to make him drop his gun, and cursed as it skittered away just out of reach. With more of them closing in, he had to act fast.
As he raised his hand to take aim, he realised he was shaking. The gnawing hunger in the pit of his belly had quickly evolved into a sickly, clawing feeling and his head was pounding. He shot off two boomerangs as he jumped back, one of which missed its mark completely, and dived for the gun. He grabbed it and rolled, hissing as the fresh wound on his back was aggravated, and fired off a few rounds before scrabbling to reload. A curse or several escaped him as his stupid, shaky, clumsy fingers dropped a round and he looked up in time to see another one of those space bastards coming right for him. He just barely managed to pull back in time to keep his eyes intact, struggled to his feet and used the empty gun as a blunt weapon before using his speed to get some distance.
This turned out to be a bad move.
He didn't get even halfway to where he wanted to before he stumbled over his own feet and went sprawling with enough velocity to go arse over tits and roll himself into a wall. Using the wall to pull himself back up really highlighted how wrong he felt. His stomach hurt like hell and everything else either hurt or just felt plain weird. Despite feeling utterly starved, he was half convinced he was about to puke right there and then with how shitty and nauseous he felt, almost like the acid in his stomach was trying to break out in protest. The nausea was made much worse when he looked up and saw the whole world spinning around him, like being on a fucked up Gravitron ride. He clamped a hand over his mouth, only the hand was coated in foul smelling alien guts which really only ensured he managed to bring up a mouthful of bile and acid, and he pitched forward onto his knees as his vision swam out of focus.
"Boomer!" Harley's voice sounded muffled, but more than that it sounded panicked. He looked up, just barely managing to unsheathe a boomerang to fight back as the nearest assailant made contact. He felt claws rake his side and a projectile clip his arm, and he registered that his shield must be depleted before his head got slammed and white hot agony gave way to the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.
"Aw shit! Boomerang's down!" Harley opened fire on the alien mauling him as soon as she had a decent shot.
"What happened?" Floyd asked through the comms.
"Think he got overwhelmed. There's loads of these suckers!"
"Where is he? Can you get to him?"
"Nnnnnnope. Can take out the suckers around him from here though."
"I am on him." King Shark stated, and a moment later, Harley saw him charge through to the fallen body. She felt a flicker of what could be relief as the big guy crouched over the fallen body.
"How is he?"
"He is unconscious and bleeding."
"Get him to cover," Floyd ordered, "We'll clear out the Terminauts and get him back to HQ."
King Shark lifted the body and, in lieu of anything better to do, slung it over his shoulder and jumped through a window. By some luck, the window led to what had once been someone's bedroom, though the room had long since been evacuated, or the owner had been killed or assimilated by Brainiac. The important thing was, this was an ideal place to place an unconscious person, so he swept the broken glass (and the duvet) off the bed before putting Boomerang down on it. He lay there, slowly leaking blood onto the sheets, and King Shark wondered how he'd gone down. He was, well, not exactly competent, but no worse than the rest of this ragtag group of criminals, really. Then again, at a time like this, one unlucky moment could be the end all.
He sat beside the bed, staring at him. On impulse, he reached out, wanting to just push some of Boomerang's hair off his forehead, maybe give a pat to the cheek - he had seen humans do that in a gesture of comfort in movies - but pulled his hand back when Deadshot and Harley started to climb through the window.
"I was not touching him!"
"Oooookay..."
"Hey, no-one's judgin', you do you, Shark."
The two sauntered over, taking a good look at their fallen ally. He was damn pale, one deep gash in his side, a shallower one across his back, a blast wound to his right arm and a bruise forming on his forehead. Deadshot pulled out a medkit and started on the worst of it, stemming the bleeding. "He'll need proper medical attention once we stabilise him."
"So how we gonna do this?" Harley asked. "Shove him in one of Flag's magic Pokeballs and bring him back to the Hall of Justice? Or d'ya think Waller would just let him die if she could? Maybe we could go to Luthor or track down our girl Wondy."
"The Hall has a proper medical facility and we can probably convince Waller that he's been a useful asset so far."
Shark gently scooped Boomerang into his arms, holding him to his chest. "It is strange for him to be so quiet. I have become quite accustomed to his foul mouth and loud nature."
"Yeah," Harley laughed, "he sure does make it hard to get any peace and quiet. You got him secure, big guy?"
"I believe so."
Deadshot nodded "Right. Keep him steady, we don't want to aggravate the wounds any more. Keep pressure on his side." He signaled for the group to move out and went first, checking the coast was clear before slipping out of the window. Harley went next, flipping enthusiastically as she went, and Nanaue followed after, leaping to the next rooftop and not minding if he damaged more of the windowsill.
He tried to keep the body steady and stable as they moved. No unnecessary jolting. The group travelled in a tense silence, broken only by the taunts of Brainiac's forces over the commlink. That and the occasional dying whale sound from Boomerang's middle. He had complained about being hungry earlier, but Nanaue himself was nowhere near the stomach growling stage of hunger, so he did wonder how a much smaller man who had eaten more than him at lunch last he'd seen him in the Arkham lunch hall seemed that much hungrier. Perhaps it was a human thing.
Boomerang groaned softly, his head lolling to the side and his cheek pressing against Nanaue's chest. A moment later, his eyes flickered open.
"...Sharko?"
"Boomerang. You are awake."
"What the hell happened? Aw fuck-" He shifted, and Nanaue tightened his hold to try and keep him still.
"We are not certain. I just know you were defeated in battle."
"Ugh...I feel well crook..." He pressed more of his face into Nanaue's chest and shut his eyes again. He still felt lightheaded and dizzy, and lying down wasn't helping. Why did everything hurt?
Wait, what was he lying on?
Whatever. He was too tired and sore to care.
Felt nice to be held when he was feeling like utter shit, though. Not even his mother had held him like this when he'd been sick as a child. He could tell Shark was tense, holding him pretty tight, but also trying not to use his full strength, trying not to hurt him any more than he already was.
"This is...feels nice..."
"What is?"
"Held."
He was slipping back out of it already. Definitely concussed. Nanaue looked between him and his uninjured companions. "Do I need to keep him awake?"
"Nah, that's a myth." Harley assured him. "Not much we can do for him here and now anyway. He wants to sleep, let him."
Each jolt as Shark leaped made his stomach lurch, but as the group tried to sneak through the rooftops, each leap brought the glow of Nanaue's body into view, and in his concussion addled mind, Digger thought it was pretty. And they were successfully avoiding clusters of terminauts, so he couldn't complain too much. Well, he could, but still. He curled inward, toward his injured side, where he could feel the warm, sticky sensation of being coated in blood and the sharp pain of a jagged wound.
"On your left, Shark!"
At that callout, Digger felt Nanaue's arms shift, felt himself begin to drop, enough of a startle to pull him back from the brink of unconsciousness, causing him to fling an arm out in panic, latching onto Nanaue's shirt.
"Don't drop me, don't let go..." He managed to slur through the haze.
"I will not." Nanaue promised, trying to hold him close with one arm while reaching for his gun with the other. They were already one man down, it wouldn't do to have them both out of action.
The next time he looked down to Digger, he had passed out again. Probably for the best.
It wasn't much longer to the Hall of Justice, and Nanaue felt no small amount of relief when they got there.
"We need medics!" Deadshot called out as they walked into the hall. There was no big clamour, no rush to help, barely a reaction at all other than a soldier to the left groaning, Waller pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration and Flag making a vague gesture over his shoulder, pointing them in the right direction.
"Would you believe that? We're out there, saving the world from the evil Justice League, and that's the respect they show us?" Harley griped as they made their way to medical.
"Hell, would you respect us?"
"I'd respect me, that's for sure. Especially with a big enough bat."
Nanaue placed Digger on the first empty bed he saw as gently as he could. Harley came and leaned over him, watching with a critical eye before poking at his cheek.
"Does he look, like, thinner to you?"
A medic came over, trying to awkwardly get around the giant shark to see to the man's injuries. Deadshot also passed a critical eye over him before responding.
"I don't know, maybe a little. He was starting to flag behind back there though, right before he got his shit rocked."
"Flag?" The medic asked. Deadshot shrugged.
"Said his feet hurt and he was hungry. We didn't have eyes on him when he went down."
"Oh! I did! He fell over, did a quadruple flip and then got his shit rocked!"
"Really? Damn, sounds like a show."
The medic turned to King Shark. "I need you out of my way."
He budged maybe an inch, but very much stayed hovering protectively over Boomerang. The medic heaved a sigh and squished herself in between them to examine and treat him.
"He regained consciousness briefly on the way back over." King Shark told the medic. "He seemed confused."
"Okay - give me room, shark, fuck - he's gonna need stitches on this..." A few more mumbles to herself as she sorted him out and then "Jesus fuck his blood sugar's through the floor. Okay, I've read a bunch of the files on the computers here, I think I have an idea what happened...See, from what I understand, when a speedster like Flash runs, they burn calories. The faster they go, the more they burn. They have to eat a lot to keep going. My guess is, connecting to the speed force with that gauntlet means he can run just like a speedster, and the drawbacks are starting to hit hard. He hasn't eaten enough to make up for all the high speed running he's been doing and has run himself right into starvation mode."
"So..."
"So we make sure he eats. Line his stupid jacket with snacks if you have to. Found, like, a locker stuffed with Oreos back there, go fill his pockets with those." She handed Boomerang's jacket to Deadshot, who held it away from him like it stank before leaving with Harley. She then looked at King Shark, who had moved somewhat out of the way but was still holding Boomerang's hand. "You're staying?"
"He didn't want to be alone."
"Cool. In that case, you're in charge of watching him for now."
-
When Boomerang next came to, he was lying flat on a bed, his top half stripped, bruised but bandaged, with an IV in one hand and the other being held by King Shark. He looked at their joined hands, then up at the shark with a frown. "Wha...?"
"You said it was nice to be held. I promised to hold until you felt better."
He didn't remember saying that. Or did he? Well...it did feel nice to be cared about. He wasn't dumb, or at least not completely dumb, he knew he wasn't well liked, so it was almost a pleasant surprise that someone did care enough to stay with him and keep him comfortable when he was ill.
"...Thanks, Sharko."
Shark gave a stiff nod. "I was made to stop cradling you while you were being treated, so I settled for holding your hand, but now you are awake I can hug-"
"Nah, naaah, you're alright, mate." He didn't think he could handle the others seeing the shark cuddling him like a soft toy. Sure, having arms around him, strong arms that could keep him safe and what the fuck was he thinking? "Look...my head's a bit fuzzy, what the hell happened out there?"
"...we have been informed that your use of the speed force has been burning more energy than your body can provide. Currently we believe you collapsed from hunger in the middle of a fight. Then an alien soldier slashed your abdomen and slammed your head into the wall."
"...well that's embarrassing..."
"You did try to tell us you were hungry. We very much brushed you off. Even in the things I have read about the Speed Force, this effect was not mentioned. It is fascinating to know, but our ignorance has led to you being hurt..."
"Man, I just thought I was gonna get to run fast, I didn't expect all this extra shit." He tried not to dwell on how it was a damn miracle he hadn't been killed yet, speed force or no speed force.
"The medic - her name is Annie and she is from Mammoth City in New Jersey originally, and-"
"I don't give a shit."
"-she is going to bring food."
"Now that I give a shit about."
"She said she is going to go through the rations to make sure you get what you need so you can get back out there and not die as quickly. Also she said we should fill your pockets with snack foods. Also, she agreed to show me around Mammoth City if we survive this."
A weird pang of jealousy unfurled in Digger's chest. "I could show you all around Central City if ya want." There was no way in hell he'd be going back to his actual hometown, and there wasn't anything worth seeing there anyway, but in Central he could show the shark...uh...huh, maybe the Flash museum? No, that was stupid, museums sucked and superheroes sucked.
Shark smiled, a genuine and interested smile, and it felt warm. "I would like that! I hear there is some fascinating architecture there."
"Uh...yeah...yeah, buildings and shit!" Fuck, he had nothing in common with this guy. "I'd be a shit tour guide."
"I would want to see whatever you have to show me."
His mind drifted somewhere dirty before he reeled it back in. It was best not to entertain the 'I haven't gotten laid since the last time I was arrested' thoughts.
"...Even if it was boring? Or a disappointment?"
"Even then." He paused, sensing a moment of vulnerability, wondering whether it was right to pry into it. "...Why?"
"I just...don't wanna be worthless."
"You have never been worthless-"
"You ain't known me that long, Sharko. I have a long, long history of being a fucking disappointment."
King Shark gave a frustrated growl. "You have been important to us. Not just as part of this team, as yourself. You are..." He tried not to hesitate, searching for the right words. Because as much as this man was a filthy, foul mouthed brat, shit talking everyone in sight and throwing his weight around like he's so much more than he is, there was a charm to him, a worthiness that Nanaue at least could see. "You have courage." Boomerang let out a half laugh. He actually laughed. "You do. Any other normal human would have fled in terror while soiling himself when faced with half of the things you have faced. Even when you have fled, you have come back for us with something that has aided us. We can write you off as stupid and uneducated, but in the moment you think quickly and act without hesitation. You have been a good companion, if annoying and unbearable at times, and you have the marks of a...a good friend and a decent warrior."
Was that the nicest thing anyone had ever said to him?
Definitely since he ended up in Arkham, it was.
He must have taken a little too long to respond, as he felt Nanaue's fingers carefully take his chin and turn his head a little towards him, saw him staring at him with those big, dark eyes.
Shit, maybe he needed to change the subject before he said something stupid and ill advised and potentially horny.
Nanaue took his hand away and moved it instead to just over Digger's wrist, rubbing his thumb briefly over the skin. It was a lot softer and thinner than his own, and here he could see the lines of the tattoos on their arms, side by side. A thought pinged in his head, a way to break the silence while his conversation partner was still scrabbling for a single, remotely normal, thought.
"In the Shark Kingdom, tattoos are a rite of passage, a symbol to be proud of. What do yours denote?"
Boomerang blanked. Really, what they denoted was that he had the money for them and no impulse control, or he had a really cool idea that he wanted marked on his body, like that skull in the top hat, that was cool. "Uhhh....a bunch of things!"
"May I...?" He hovered his fingers over the edge of one of the lines of ink and Boomerang, not totally sure what he was agreeing to, just knowing it involved touch and for some reason right now that was very appealing, nodded.
King Shark's fingers traced carefully over the lines of the tattoos, up his arm. He wasn't quite sure what the ink on Boomerang's skin could mean, but it was interesting. What looked like a fin, and above, surrounded by sun-kissed freckles, the skull in a top hat. Freckles were a curious thing in and of themselves, and Boomerang had many of them across his shoulders. Shark's finger trailed further, connecting dots from one of the skull's eyebrows, across the freckles, around the cardinal star and to the flowers at the base of his throat. He could feel the man's throat bob as he swallowed, the slight shiver that ran through his body. His finger drifted to the stars on the other side of his chest, tracing each one in turn, then down to the delicate wings of the dove on his chest before trailing across intricate words and down to the snakes on his lower belly. The way they curved and met in the middle was almost reminiscent of a heart, and he traced it down to the edge of Boomerang's pants before coming to a stop. The entire movement was slow, intimate and not at all unwelcome.
"How far do the tails go?" He asked before he could stop himself.
Boomerang smirked and thumbed the waistband of his pants. "I wouldn't mind giving ya a look-" Wait, this was Shark he was talking to. He could understand himself saying that sort of flirty shit to a hot girl, but this...maybe he was delirious from hunger or the concussion. Shark leaned in, staring right at him with those stupid eyes, and...
...Fuck, he was attracted to King Shark. The fucking shark was fucking hot. He was throwing all the denial out the window, possibly after setting it on fire.
A thought or two flitted through his head. Wondering what that skin would feel like under his hand, those teeth at his ear or throat, what it might be like to make out with a bipedal shark that could crack him in half if he wanted to, but hell, that could be hot.
On impulse, he reached up, his hand ghosting against King Shark's cheek. He could feel the bumps of rough shark skin under his fingers, feeling flat one way, jagged another.
"Hey, Shark, have you ever kissed a guy?"
"I have! He smelled - and tasted - of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages!"
He scoffed. "Well I can do better than that. Once I figure out how to navigate the big mouth and shark teeth..."
His hands were still shaking a little as he moved to grab Shark's shirt and tried to tug him down. Shark followed through, practically crashing down on top of him.
Which is, of course, how the others found Captain Boomerang and King Shark making out on the hospital bed.
