CHAPTER ONE:
"TO KILL OR NOT TO KILL"
Red Robin struck hard and fast. He bobbed and weaved, ducked and parried. His bow staff was getting a workout against the menacing man whom he was fighting, and so was he, sweating from his brow. His hair already felt itchy from dampness. The man seemed to have rudimentary fighting skills, but had the drive of an insane psychopath.
He fought the man matching bow for bow, defending, thrusting, defending, thrusting, again and again, and it was becoming as if he and the man were merely on permanent repeat. Neither one of them were getting the high ground. Unfortunately, the man had Damian's sword. The man had stolen it when he hit Damian hard across the back of the head after a distraction tactic. Damian was all right, but he was currently on the sidelines. The kid wanted to fight, but every time he tried to stand he'd fall back down, clutching his head.
Damian obviously had a concussion.
They were in a warehouse, an atypical hideout for a super villain like the man's boss. But his boss — Scarecrow — had already made an exit, abandoning his laboratory, and left this guy in his place to force combat. They had been hunting Scarecrow for weeks until they got a break which lead them here. A drug dealer on the street had slipped some information to Jason while he was walking the streets pretending to be a go-between.
The information they got lead them to the wharves and warehouse district and it had been the best lead they had had come across to stop the flow of a certain street drug that caused a very unusually side-effect by its user — to give away all their money. While in itself a 'pleasant' side-effect, it still caused issues, and Batman wanted it stopped.
Newspaper and the media outlets were reporting suspicious activity regarding prominent people giving money away to seemingly frivolous causes. The elite and wealthy had money to burn, but these 'causes' didn't fit the norm, say like relatively known charities. Instead, money was being deposited into numbered accounts to off-shore accounts disguised as charities, and then lost in the system. Quite a few Red Robin traced to Switzerland. End of the line.
After analyzing a quick sample, Red Robin was beyond shocked at its brilliance. In wasn't injected, instead it was blown on the victim unsuspectedly, and it had an 'intelligence', and contained minute nanobots, that forced the victim to contact someone for instructions, where and when to give away 'to charity'. It was diabolical.
With a single verbal instruction spoken at these nanobots, Scarecrow could make anyone do anything!
Scarecrow was brainwashing them with this new form of drug. But his operation had been much bigger than any of the Bat Family had realized and it had been going on for months. Not even Red Robin knew who was truly behind the scheme, until a strange looking man entered a bank and accessed one of these fake numbered accounts to transfer funds to another account, that Red Robin was closely monitoring.
Normally such a thing would probably be done by wire transfer with a heavy encryption, but anything could have happened for the mystery man to come to the bank instead of using a personal computer. The bank teller was also being monitored, but when he was checked out by other means, he was completely clean. But the teller helped the man hide the money transfers, nevertheless, which had been going on a lot longer than Red Robin thought.
Was he being controlled? Paid off? Or was be apart of the operation? Or victim?
The origin of the numbered accounts was still unknown, but Scarecrow was greedy. Red Robin suspected he had a partner, but nothing could be confirmed. It was then Red Robin using secret access within the city surveillance CCTV cameras throughout Gotham City managed to follow the man after his shift ended to the warehouse — to Scarecrow's base of operations. And to his laboratory where he cooked his newest controlling and hallucinating drug.
What appeared to be like medical beds and a now demolish chemist lab were in the warehouse, among other things, and the man — this drug inducted man — that was currently now trying to kill Red Robin and Damien.
Nightwing had chased after Scarecrow when he made his escape from the warehouse and was presently scouring through the maze of alleyways, side streets, and other hiding spots within the district.
So far, Nightwing had no luck.
Red Robin was forced down to one knee as Scarecrow's minion slashed hard with Damian's sword, Red Robin cupping his bow staff turned vertical, the blade cutting rivet marks into the metallic surface.
The man — the teller — whom they had followed to the warehouse was of sound mine to begin with. Then Scarecrow dusted him with some of this new drug, literally blowing it on him, and gave him instructions just before fleeing. Soon after the immediate coughing, the man had grabbed his head. Whatever the man began to see, feel, or experience was so traumatic, that he began to scream and shout, and become unhinged, causing a complete disassociation of reality. Scarecrow's instructions had been: "Your demons have come. Defend yourself."
"DEMONS! YOU'RE ALL DEMONS! YOU'RE ALL HELL SPAWN FROM LUCIFER AND I MUST DEFEND MYSELF!"
If Jason were here, he'd probably agree with Damian being called a demon, often referring him to alike. His nickname for Damian was 'Hell Spawn', because he always acted so dark, arrogant, and narcissistic. And was basically a pain.
That aside, this man — possessed by Scarecrow, per se — was dangerous. Scarecrow's drugs were so powerful that they could make a person think and do anything and the side effects would be with a person for weeks afterwards. Dick Grayson could attest to that. He was once subjected to one of Scarecrow's deadliest hallucinogenic drugs once, that made him believe he was worthless, that he never do anything right, and it wasn't Nightwing who left the team, but rather Batman told him he was no longer wanted, and it almost made him commit suicide because of its deep depressive effect — causing a psychotropic episode.
However, Nightwing was strong, and he beat Scarecrow's drug using his own inner strength. He had defied so much throughout the years that his mentality was beyond than of the average person. And through the help of several days of therapy, Bruce and the entire Bat family never leaving his side — suicide watch — he snapped out of it on his own. And like Dick, never one to hide his emotions, he had a good cry in Barbara Gordon's arms, and then even apologized to everyone that he had ever thought the worse of them.
He had called Bruce so many nasty names. It was lucky for Dick that he remember so very little of it.
Scarecrow's drugs were evil incarnate, and they had caused more than a few people to take their own lives.
Red Robin had to stop this guy from doing something he would regret as well. The man didn't know what he was doing and didn't deserve his mind being turned to mush with whatever the drug was messing with his brain. The man's mind must've been experiencing utter chaos to believe demons were going to kill him and that the only way he could stop them was to fight back.
Red Robin didn't blame the man. He would do the same thing under the same controlled circumstances. Lucky for the man, Tim Drake was here to help him.
Or, so he thought.
Red Robin thrust upwards with his bow staff and jumped to his feet pushing the man backwards, then parried with the man again, but made sure to only hit the flat sides of the sword. Damian's sword blade was extremely sharp and it would more than likely slice Red Robin's bow staff in two with very little effort at the right angle and with enough thrust.
The best he could do at the moment was bounce the sword from side to side to avoid the man from getting in too close. But, in doing so, he couldn't attack now. He was merely in defensive mode. He didn't want to hurt the man. But in the state he was in, would the man even feel any pain? Like a drunk who fell down a flight of stairs.
The analogy fell in line to a time he saw Jason take a wrong step and fell on his face after an evening of drinking. Tim was too young to drink, but that didn't stop Jason when he took Tim to a bar and Tim had to carry Jason home. Jason said the next morning he didn't feel a thing when he tumbled down the flight of steps near the bar despite his face showing the result of the smack — black and blue and bruised under his left eye.
"Kill'em, Drake! Show no mercy!" Drake suddenly heard Damian shout.
Red Robin quickly eyed the boy, and saw Robin on one knee holding his head. Damian had been hit hard with a two-by-four across the back of the head by the very man Red Robin was fighting and obviously needed medical attention.
So, Drake needed to finish this fight and quickly.
"No!" Red Robin retorted. "He's innocent. He thinks we're devils, a result of Scarecrow's drug. We don't kill!"
"DEMONS! PHANTOMS! MONSTERS! I WILL BANISH YOU BOTH FROM THIS REALM!" the man cried, swinging Damian's sword like a mad man. Red Robin bobbed and weaved avoiding the strikes. Even backflipped to make distance. Good thing he kept up on his training apart from his computer duties.
"The man's obviously delusional and can't be reasoned with!" Damian said back. "You'll be doing him a favour."
Stubborn and hard-nosed to the last, Red Robin thought. Just like his father, Bruce Wayne.
But Damian had a point, to kill or not to kill was the question here. The man was acting like a psychopathic killer with no remorse. Batman's cardinal rule was not to kill. To save his own life, would he do the unthinkable? Jason wouldn't think twice about it.
"No!" Red Robin rejected. But he had had enough of this stalemate. It was time to end this fight. "I'm going to save him!" He stayed true to his morals. He looked directly at the man. "Look buddy, I know you probably don't understand me right now…I don't want to hurt you…but this is going to hurt a little…"
And with the quickness of a jack rabbit, Red Robin reached inside his utility belt and snatched out two mini-discs, toys he especially made for quick attacks, and with a snap of his wrist, flicked them like spin-tops at the man. One was a flash-bomb, temporarily blinding him, but the other created a heavier mini-explosion that forced the man back. Then with one downward thrust with his bow staff, Red Robin disarmed the man, knocking the sword out of hand and to the ground. The sword bounced and clanged when it landed.
"Kick it over!" Damian demanded, and Drake quickly did so. The sword slid along the floor and Damian grasped a hand around the hilt.
But Drake had one last surprise for Scarecrow's minion.
He threw one final disc, this one directly at the man's chest. And this disc was very different, and had a specific name, with built in was an AI chip. Drake called it the Octo-Shock-Disc or OSD.
As it flew through the air, out of small compartments within its circular casing, it sprang mini-tentacles that wrapped around the man's mid-section and shoulders once secured to his body. Within seconds of full attachment, it directed enough of an electrical shock that it rendered the man completely immobile. For a moment, the man just stood there, albeit unconscious, like a statue, his hands clutched into claws, his mouth agape. Then his knees buckled, and the man collapsed unconscious to the floor, face first. He didn't even have time to scream.
Drake breathed heavy, used his bow staff as a temporary crutch.
"You finally beat him, Drake," Damian said, however condescendingly. The kid got to his feet and also used his sword as a crutch to do so. "Took you long enough. If it were me, he'd be down in two-seconds flat."
Drake grumbled. "You're one to talk, he blindsided you. You let your guard down. A little thank you would be nice!"
"Stop fighting! Both of you!" It was Nightwing's voice that came over the comm from Drake's wrist device. "You can write a report about what happen to you later — a full and detailed report, mind you."
Both sighed. After every mission, a full report had to be logged to review later. Batman would review it, and often, they would all gather around and talk about what they could have done better and then do more efficiently later. Basically it would lead to more training.
They were just coming off a confrontation with Mr. Freeze, who tried to threaten Gotham City with a new chemical weapon he called Ice Acid, that would eat away anything it touched. Red Robin was subjected to it and suffered some nasty burns as a result, as it liked like acid/dry ice.
The Rogues' were more than active as of late, and often — in the case of Drake then and Damian here — the team was getting sloppy. Nightwing chalked it up to being tired, they had been working extremely hard, but he was even getting upset about it, and insisted on more training drills. He was an even harder drill sergeant than Batman.
Bruce was still on his business retreat for Wayne Enterprises overseas. So, it was up to Dick, Drake and Damian to hold the fort. Jason left to do whatever. Typical of Jason, he would come when needed of it was only important to him.
Bruce insisted on up-to-date status reports.
In regard to the Freeze incident because he had read about it online, Dick had told Bruce everything was fine. He had had left out a few details — like Jason giving Freeze a sample of the Lazarus Pit water; which could be used to heal wounds like Red Robin's nasty Ice Acid burns, even resurrect the dead (but it wouldn't work for Nora Fries). If Bruce knew about that, he'd be furious and would cut his trip short.
But Dick didn't want that. It wasn't often Bruce got a vacation.
Gotham City was in good hands without Batman at the moment. But after this, Dick was starting to regret saying that.
"Do you need assistance, Nightwing?" Drake asked. He had Grayson's GPS position marker in blue on his wrist 3D map, projected from his wrist device. Those in red — he and Damian — were together. Nightwing was in pursuit of Scarecrow a few kilometres away from their position.
"Negative, he got away," Nightwing sounded defeated, but also annoyed. "Status of Scarecrow's Op?"
"Secured," Drake reported, "and one perp in custody. But he's in no condition for an interrogation."
"He's unconscious," Damian put in. "After a lengthy battle with Slow Boy here."
"I was handling it! He was intoxicated with one of Scarecrow's drugs. The man was acting like a lunatic!"
Nightwing growled displeasure. "You both did good, but you both need more training. Bruce would not be pleased, I'm not happy either. I wish you two would stop fighting all the time. Or do we have to have one of our little talks again?" There was a moment of silence. One of Grayson's little talks was when everyone sat around together like a group session while Grayson lectured them about what it means to be a family. And normally it would last for hours. It was boring. "Good," he said more cheerful. "Looks like we have an understanding. Status…Any medical issues?"
"Negative," Drake reported.
"All good," Damian replied.
"Understood," Nightwing said back. "Wrap things up, contact the GCPD, and let them take the prisoner into custody. Explain to them to use extreme caution and to issue a medical warning regarding Scarecrow's drugs. Grab a sample if you can and we'll catalog it with the others. I'll meet you both back at the Bat Cave. Nightwing out!"
"Understood," Drake said, but Grayson had already ended the communication.
Nightwing could get back on his own. Drake had driven the Robin Cycle to the scene with Damian on his back.
"Damian — you okay? I don't have any meds with me. Can you handle a trip back on the cycle?"
"A little headache is nothing to me, Drake." Damian rubbed the back of his head where Scarecrow's minion had hit him. It smart, but it wasn't bad. "You forget, I'm much tougher than you are. So, a little bump is nothing to me!"
Drake felt like swearing, but held his tongue. But inside, he shouted every last profundity he could think of.
To be continued…
