Back From The Dead

Chapter 1 – Vigilante

Dedicated to Mikeyf1115 ( u/4284492/Mikeyf1115) – thank you for the inspirational idea! :)

Dick Grayson – 26 years old

Barbara Gordon - 25

Jason Todd – 23

Cassandra Sandsmark (Wonder Girl) - 23

Tim Drake – 21

Stephanie Brown – 20

Donna Troy - 20

It's been 7 years since the death of Batman's second protégé – Jason Peter Todd. After he died, Batman quickly replaced him with the third Robin – Timothy Jackson Drake.

Jason's death was a shock to everyone in the Batman family. Even for Nightwing. He was a close friend to Jason. He helped him in his training and went on missions with him. Dick's support for Jason was great and he loved him like a little brother.

As the years passed they forgot about Jason and moved on to the other teenagers in the Team. Nightwing, as the leader, didn't have much time to think about people who were no longer among them. He had more important things to worry about, like a group of loud and messy teenage super heroes in training.

Tim was older now and he took more responsibility about the new Team and missions. A few years ago he took up a new name and is now known as Red Robin. He also had some "personal" problems with Stephanie, since they are a couple and all.

Stephanie is a member of the Bat family, too. When she was 15 she joined the Team and took the name Robin. Then, at 18 she took the name Batgirl, because Barbara had and accident with the Joker and had to be put in a wheelchair, deciding to change her name to Oracle and help the Team from the Watchtower. When Barbara was healed at 24 years of age, she decided to yield the Batgirl appellation to Stephanie, and kept the nickname Oracle.

Donna Troy joined the Team when she was 15, too. When she was 12, Wonder Woman made Donna her apprentice, and she took the appellation Darkstar, because Cassy refused to give up her identity as Wonder Girl.

The Justice League was growing. There were more and more young people who wanted to join, everyone with his/her own special abilities, trained by different JLA members. However, not only was the JLA growing, the Light was also gaining members fast. But not only the Light, there were more evil organizations and even villains who were working solo. And very soon, one of those solo villains will show his face …uh, I mean his mask to the world and introduce himself. Too bad he wasn't just "another" criminal or a thief, who wanted to "be somebody" in this nondurable world.

It was just another lazy Saturday morning. Bruce was peacefully sitting on the huge couch in the living room of his gigantic mansion, reading a paper, and slight music could be heard, playing from the radio, placed next to the couch. He was wearing a tourmaline robe, the end of the sleeves was white and it had a white waist belt. His onyx slippers matched everything perfectly.

Alfred came in the room, humble as ever, with his eyes slightly closed, his thin figure straight up, carrying a small silver tray with one hand, with a cup filled with coffee on it. His other hand was stuck still to his body. He looked so exquisite with his black suit and matching black shoes and socks, white gloves and tucked in shirt, and his neat little black bow tie. His perfectly trimmed moustache was the icing of his refined appearance. Not to mention his smoothly trimmed haircut.

Alfred went to Bruce and stood perfectly still next to the table, as he spoke in his calm and gentle voice.

"Good morning, master Bruce. Your coffee is served."

Alfred deliberately took the cup and placed it on the table, right next to Bruce's paper.

"Thanks Alfred."

Bruce looked at the old man and nodded his head.

"Oh, one more thing, sir. Master Richard will be visiting you today. He said he had something important to tell you."

Alfred walked out of the room and left Bruce wondering what Dick wanted to tell him.

An hour later, Bruce was already in the Batcave, dressed in his costume, when Dick walked in.

"We need to talk."

Dick had his Nightwing costume on. As he walked towards Batman, his facial expression didn't change for a second. He looked worried and yet indifferent.

"Yeah, I know. Alfred said you had something important to tell me. What is it, Dick?"

Bruce turned his gaze from the giant screen of the computer to his ex-protégé.

"There's a new psycho on the loose, right here, in Gotham. He calls himself the Red Hood."

Bruce raised an eyebrow in confusion, as Dick continued to talk:

"I think it might be the Joker again. Planning some kind of revenge or something like that. I came here to ask you for advice."

"Advice isn't the only thing you will be getting. I'm going to help you uncover this person's identity. Right now, I'm pretty sure it's not the Joker. But let's keep this as an option, just in case. Have you started working on the case yet?"

"Yeah, and I've got some information. This morning, this so called Red Hood, blew up Black Masks headquarters and almost killed him. He has also been fighting criminals and controlling whole gangs, he's even in charge of some of the biggest mafia families. It seems that he has been working in the shadows for about a month or so. Who know what else he's in charge of."

Dick's voice became louder and he clenched his teeth at the last sentence. From his expression you could see that he was extremely pissed off. He didn't like it when he wasn't able to do something himself and had to come to Batman for advice or help.

"I don't know how he was able to work under our noses for so long, but I'll start investigating this vigilante right away. Do you have more information? Like where his hiding place is?"

"I have no idea. I've asked some people and gang members where he might be hiding or if they have seen him somewhere, but the answers were all the same – nobody knows anything about that guy! It's like he's a freakin ghost or something – people have seen him, but then he disappears, afterwards he comes out of nowhere again and strikes some of the most influential people in Gotham. Everybody's afraid of this guy."

Batman tightened his fists and narrowed his eyebrows.

"Well then, I guess we start working right away. Gather more information and bring it to me. I'll sum up everything you told me and compare it with the deeds of all the villains we know. I'll be waiting for you to call me when you find out something important that could help us find out who this person is."

Dick nodded and ran out of the cave. Bruce returned to his computer and searched out a list he had made, of all the villains, not only the ones in Gotham, but the ones all over the world, too. He even considered some of the aliens they had fought, but since Dick didn't mention any superpowers he decided to go only with the powerless ones for starters.