Chapter 3: Closer Than You Realize
It had been little over a month since the dreams first started. Every night the sensations they left him with got infinitely worse, he'd always had his 'needs' which weren't so hard to satisfy every once in a while, but now it was almost every day. This is getting ridiculous, he thought, as he got himself cleaned up. His dreams were starting to get more detailed. Starting to feel more real. He was beginning to wonder if his dreams were dreams at all, and if not, then who the hell visited him every night while he slept. Suddenly there was a faint knock on his door; he quickly cleaned the mess up trying to make as little noise as possible. When he was satisfied he went slowly to the door and opened it slowly to see Wally on the other side. "Hey man, Tornado's looking for you."
"Thanks man," Robin replied. Glad his sporadic thoughts had been interrupted. Finally, he had something other than his bizarre dreams to worry about. As he walked down the hall to the main com center, he had the feeling someone was watching him. No, not just watching, but stalking him. He turned around to confront his invisible foe, only to be knocked unconscious and dragged into a nearby alcove. He woke to find his arms and legs bound and eyes blindfolded the only indication that anyone else was there was a voice murmuring into his ear, "Hello, kid."
Getting into the brat's hideout was a breeze, after super snot had so kindly opened the ground entrance after returning from his daily 'breather' with monster mutt. Really such an odd ball pairing deserved each other, both freaks, thrown away by their masters. But never mind super freak and his pet, Sportsmaster had bigger fish to fry. Getting in and around undetected was the hard part, grabbing the boy wonder and having some 'fun' with him would give him the most trouble. Well, not like he wasn't already used to sneaking in and 'playing' with the kid, however this would be more challenging because today was the day he would finally get some real one on one time with the kid consciously aware of the 'fun' they'd been having over the past month. So waiting for the kid to get into position for optimal snatching was a piece of cake, after all, he was a patient man.
It took all of two hours for the kid to finally come out of his room, sending the phony package had been risky on his part, but the reward was worth it. He stalked the kid down the hall waiting for the chance to strike, ducking into the alcove as the kid turned around, scoping the hall way out. Now. Slipping out of his hiding spot, he gave the kid one hard tap to the neck, and he was down. After making sure the kid was out cold, he took him to a deserted part of the cave he'd found after 'visiting' the kid at night. He tied the kid up nice and tight and blind folded him to make sure the kid didn't realize who he was. It took the kid all of two hours to wake up from his drugged up state, and it felt like he should at least let the kid know he was there. Sportsmaster leaned close to boy wonder's ear and whispered, "Hello, kid."
Bruce paced inside his cave, trying to decipher the anxiety building under his carefully cultivated façade. Something wasn't right, Dick always gave him updates on the team's status as well as his own at the end of each week, but he hadn't communicated with him in over a month. Maybe the team's condition was worsening. After all the training exercise he and Martian man hunter cooked up had been a very traumatic experience for the whole team. But he had expected them to have recovered by now, weakness in the team could jeopardize any future mission the team was assigned. And Bruce was not about to let them go out and get themselves hurt or captured because of collective mental trauma. But, most of all, he didn't want dick's psychological state to get any more unstable. Not just because he was the heir to his legacy, but because this boy meant more to him than anyone could possibly imagine. And not so long ago, that included him.