Here's the new chapter. So this deals with more of the internal reactions to what's going on, rather than showing what action is taken as a result of it. I don't really think this came together as nicely as I would've liked it to, but I haven't updated in forever and really want to get this out, so bear with me.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, and who would be stupid enough to actually give me ownership over these charters?
What can anyone do when someone goes missing? They can wait for more information, but that won't stop the worry that's building up. There are no guarantees when a child is abducted, when anyone is taken for that matter. The motives aren't always the same, and the actions caused by the motives vary in degree as well. No one knows if the people responsible want to hurt them or if they just want to use them for something.
A lot of the time people are left with worry and not knowing what to do next. They might wait for a ransom call, and even if there is a call, there might not be proof of life. And when there is, it can be even scarier to hear the scared voice on the other end, or even actually see their face. The fact that knowing that someone has been taken and is at the mercy of their captors, not knowing if they will last another minute, or if you'll ever get to see them again is terrifying.
Other times there isn't a call, a video, or even a note, and you're just left completely in the dark. They start to wonder if they'll ever see them again, and it's hard knowing that even if they do everything they can, it still might not be enough.
That was how Bruce Wayne was feeling as he paced his office. Commissioner Gordon had called him to explain a little more about the situation, and why it had been on the news so quickly. Apparently, the two paramedics had called the GCPD and a few officers, including Gordon, had gone to investigate. They guessed that someone in the station leaked it to the news, and that how they found out about it.
Gordon didn't really know much about the case at the moment, even after interrogating the two paramedics. Bruce really wanted to go investigate himself, but right now he needed to stay here and wait for an update; he could do an investigation later.
Even though Bruce had gone through this a few times before, both with Dick and Robin, it didn't make things any easier on him. If anything, it made him more nervous. The more he became a target, the more people would try it, and the more dangerous things could get. They took him from an ambulance of all places! What if there was a problem and he really needed to see a doctor? What if he was hurt? What if he never got to see his boy again?
Bruce's thoughts were interrupted as his phone went off in his pocket. He picked it up, and when he saw it was Jim Gordon calling him, he answered it as he attempted to stay calm. "Hello, Commissioner, did you find something?"
"Hi Bruce," he greeted. "We need to talk."
"Did something happen? Did you find Dick?" Bruce asked quickly.
"We still don't know his location, but we came across something I think you should see," Gordon explained. Bruce didn't feel comforted by how vague Jim was being, if anything it made him more worried. "I can come to the manor so things can be a little more, uh, private."
"Of course, that would probably be best," Bruce answered, although he really just wanted to demand some answers, but by the sound of Gordon's voice, that wasn't going to happen.
"Okay, I'm on my way," he told him.
"See you soon," Bruce said, and they hung up. He made his way out of the office, and started looking for Alfred and calling his name.
"Master Bruce, is everything alright?" the man asked, entering the living room where he had heard Bruce calling for him.
Coming further into the room, he noted that worry was written over Bruce's face. To anyone else, it might have been hard to tell, but Alfred could read theses subtle hints of worry that Bruce was showing. He understood where the worry came from of course, he was just beginning to wonder if something else had happened.
"Commissioner Gordon called and said he needed to show me something, I think it has something to do with Dick's kidnapping. He's on his way over right now." Bruce explained.
"Do they have a lead already?" Alfred asked, trying to sound optimistic.
"It must be something important if he couldn't discuss it over the phone and had to come here." Bruce noted.
"That sounds correct, Sir." Alfred agreed. "When he arrives, I'll bring him to the living room, unless you would prefer to discuss this somewhere else?"
"The living room will be fine," Bruce stated.
"Very well, I shall prepare some tea and scones for you to have while you talk," Alfred told him, beginning to leave the room.
"Thank you," Bruce called as the man left. Then Bruce started walking towards the living room to continue to wait for the commissioner to arrive.
Bruce took a seat on one of the couches as he began to wonder what he would want to talk about that he couldn't tell him over the phone. Had the kidnappers gone to the police? That would be new, and unusual. Maybe they had gotten a tip and his phone calls were being traced, and they called to try to find the signal. It was a little out there, but if they didn't want him to contact the police, then it was actually kind of smart. And if they were doing that, that meant there would be a ransom call, right? There had to be.
Bruce continued to try to convince himself whatever Gordon was going to tell him would somehow relate to being good news on getting Dick back. He knew not to assume that Dick had escaped and was currently in the back of the Commissioner's car and on his way home, Gordon could've told him that, and it was just too hard to believe. He could barely convince himself that he was getting good news.
"Right this way, Commissioner Gordon," he heard Alfred leading the man towards the living room. When Jim entered the room, Bruce stood up and they shared a short greeting as Alfred sat the tray of tea and lemon scones down on the coffee table before he excused himself.
"So, mind telling me what this is about?" Bruce asked. The two were both sitting down, and with a sigh, Gordon pulled out his laptop and started typing as he spoke.
"On the news a little while ago, something came up." Gordon started, deciding it was best to just get straight to the point, and sliding the laptop closer to Bruce. "As they were giving a report, something came up on the screens on the set."
The screen was showing static, but then the picture became clear, and there was a man wearing black ski mask standing there. It was hard to tell where they were exactly do to the poor lighting. As Bruce took in the surroundings, the man started talking, only his voice was disguised.
"Hello, Gotham," the man greeted. "This won't take long, but you will want to stay until the end, we have a special message for you. As most of you know, earlier today three people went missing. We won't give you all of the details, but Richard here wanted to say hello."
The camera panned over to a boy who sat slumped against a wall. He was gagged, and his wrist and ankles were tied together. It didn't look all that necessary as the boy looked as if he would pass out at any second. He also looked pale and as if he was shivering. Richard didn't look particularly injured, but he didn't look well either.
"Now, Richard here has volunteered to help show you all something, isn't that right, kid?" the man asked, filling a syringe with a clear liquid. The boy in question looked up, a little confused as to what they were going to do to him. "This is a pain-inducer, he tested it out earlier, but it looks like he wants some more. It can be given in a lot of ways, even just by skin contact, but it's most effective if it's injected into the bloodstream."
At this point, Dick's eyes went wide as the masked man approached him and sent the liquid into his veins. Not even a second later, and Dick's eyes squeezed tightly together as he felt the aches in his body begin to worsen.
Bruce could easily see the pain written over his face, but he was confused as he didn't see any injuries, had they hurt him before this or was this just part of the drug?
"And now for the demonstration," the masked man continued, grabbing Dick and pushing him off the wall and onto the hard ground where he let out a grunt of pain from the force.
"We'll fast forward through this part." Gordon said quickly, making a grab for the computer.
"No, I need to know what's happening to him." Bruce said firmly, pulling the laptop a little closer to him.
When Bruce looked back at the screen, the man had started kicking the kid on the floor, not very hard at first, just to show what even a small amount could do. The kicks started getting harder and faster, and then he grabbed a bat and brought it out to the side before swinging it down on the poor boy's stomach.
"Come on, Bruce," Gordon started, "you don't need to see this." Jim then reached over and snatched the laptop away from a shocked Bruce Wayne. The boy's muffled cry of pain still ringing through his ears.
When Gordon pressed play again, the screen showed a bruising Dick Grayson with his eyes closed tightly in pain, Bruce was unable to tell if the boy was unconscious or they had just decided to stop. Dick's breathing sounded more labored than it had before, and there were dried tear tracks running down his cheeks.
"I hope we have your attention now," the man stated. "We want Robin. Yes, you heard me, we'll let them go when Robin turns himself in, and yes, it has to be Robin, no cops or Batman, got it? And if we find you beforehand, then I guess we'll have to make other use of the kid here. I hope we've made our point clear, we'll be in touch, Little Bird."
The screen was once again filled with static before going back to showing the wide-eyed news reporter. Her mouth was slightly ajar, and she was looking at the screen were the clip had been showing. One of the camera men announced that they were back on, and the woman quickly began to start talking again before asking to cut to commercial. They knew she had watched the whole thing, and probably a lot of people who had been watching, because it was hard to look away from something like that.
"We couldn't track the signal or detect the voice, well not yet anyways." Gordon explained, gaining Bruce's attention once more. "I'm sorry I had to show you that, but I felt you should know what's going on and I didn't really know how else to explain it to you in a way that made sense."
"No, I'm glad you showed me, just not so much about what I saw," Bruce said. He would hate to be left out about this or find out about the video later on the news or in the paper. "Besides, I would have found out about it later, and I would much rather know now."
"What do we do now?" Bruce asked, pulling himself together and resisting the urge to break something.
"We keep the investigation going until we find him and the people responsible are behind bars," Gordon answered. "We're going to set up a few more interrogations and continue to do some background checks. We'll try the hospital and the school first, then we'll branch off from there."
Bruce nodded in acknowledgment before asking, "What are you going to do about the ransom?"
"Robin?" Bruce nodded, he was curious to see what Gordon thought about it. "I don't really know, I'll probably talk with Batman later about it, see if he has any ideas about what to do."
"A kid for another kid," Bruce pondered. "That's just so wrong, there has to be some other way."
"I don't like it either. We'll find a way to get him out of this, and hopefully avoid having to get Robin involved," Gordon said.
"Why Dick?" Bruce started, talking to himself more than Gordon. "Why use him to get to Robin?"
"I don't know, but don't worry, Bruce, we'll find him," Gordon promised. At that point, Gordon's phone went off. He picked it up and looked at who it was, "It's the station."
Bruce nodded in understanding, and then started to think about what he had seen and what he could do about it as Gordon had his conversation. What would he do if Robin had been the ransom for a kid other than his own? Would he let him go? Would Robin go anyway? Bruce probably wouldn't let it happen if he could help it, at least not until he was assured Robin would be safe and they had a good plan at the ready. But even if he did say no, Robin would probably run off to help them, saying that he would stand a better chance.
And what would these people do to Richard in the meantime? What would happen if the police showed up, or if they found him investigating as Batman? He hated feeling so useless. He felt guilty for letting this happen. Maybe if he had kept Richard home from school today, this wouldn't have happened. But then again, he didn't even know how this had happened. They didn't have enough detail on it, or the reasoning behind their plans. They didn't even know the plan!
"Sorry about that," Gordon said, putting the phone back in his pocket and turning to Bruce.
"Is everything okay?" Bruce questioned.
"Fine, but it turns out that the substitute nurse and the EMT were both just aliases." he announced, clearly frustrated.
"So you think they're behind it?" Bruce asked, a little surprised by the news, but also a little relieved that there were two less hostages.
"That's our best guess." Gordon sighed. "Anyway, they need me back at the station."
Right, Bruce Wayne didn't get to hear about what else was going on at the station, just small details, even if Gordon already knew Bruce wouldn't go to the press with it.
"I'll walk you out," Bruce offered, and the two got up and started walking towards the door. It was a quiet, slightly tense walk. Not really because of the company, but more so the situation.
"Call us if anything happens, and if they contact you, try to keep them talking as long as you can," Gordon reminded him.
"Right," Bruce agreed, hoping that he would get to have some communicating with the kidnappers, and maybe try to convince them to come to some more realistic terms. That itself seemed unlikely at this point after watching the footage, but he still hoped that maybe they would contact him and let him talk to Dick.
.oOo.
"Hey," Wally greeted Kaldur and Conner when he got to the cave. Looking around he noticed no one else was around yet. "Where is everybody else?"
"M'gann's at cheerleading practice," Conner said.
"And I believe Artemis said something about needing to finish a report for her history class before she could come over." Kaldur said.
"And Rob?" Wally asked, and the two shrugged. Wally sent him a quick text asking where he was and then, "So, who's up for a round of Mario Kart?
Artemis and Megan arrived at the same time, and the two joined the boys who were currently playing a very intense game of Mario Cart. The game ended with Wally winning, and then they turned it off. Checking the clock, they saw they still had some time until Black Canary arrived for their training, so they made their way into the kitchen and they started making a snack. Well, M'gann started making a snack for everyone else.
"Hey, was Rob not with you guys?" Wally asked, checking his phone I case he missed a message.
"No, I thought he would've been here by now; it's not like him to be late." Artemis commented.
"Well after what happened in Gotham earlier, it makes sense that he wouldn't come to practice." M'gann said.
"What occurred earlier today that has to do with Robin?" Kaldur asked.
"And how would you know if something was wrong with Robin and not the rest of us?" Conner questioned.
"It was all over the news," M'gann started.
"Is he okay? What happened?" Wally asked quickly before M'gann could continue her explanation. Then he started speed-speaking to the point that no one could understand him.
"Wally!" Artemis yelled, gaining the speedster's attention, and he gave a quick apology and stopped talking. "M'gann, you were saying?"
"Well, some girls on the team were talking about it, so I don't really know all of the details. Apparently Bruce Wayne's ward, Richard Grayson, was kidnapped. Then later today, someone hacked into Gotham News and played a video over it. At the end of the video, he said that for the boy to be returned home, Robin would have to willingly turn himself in and go with them." M'gann finished explaining.
"Wait, did you actually see the video?" Wally asked.
"No, none of us saw it. There was an article, and there was a clip of something on the news, but we didn't watch it." Megan answered.
"And they want Robin?" Wally checked.
"That's what it said. I don't think Robin went after them yet, though. The article probably would've mentioned that, so I'm sure he's fine and working out a plan with Batman right now." Megan said reassuringly, trying to help Wally stay calm.
"But what about the kid?" Artemis seemed… off, but Wally couldn't put his finger on it. She seemed worried, and… nervousness maybe? There was something more to her voice though, almost like… guilt? "Is he okay?"
"The article didn't really say much, but I think so." M'gann said, also seeming puzzled by Artemis' reaction.
"I don't really see the big deal," Conner said. "I mean, it's a hostage situation, right? Robin's dealt with plenty of those before, and it's always worked out. For him and the hostage."
"Conner has a point. And it does us no good to worry." Kaldur pointed out. "I am certain that Batman and Robin have this situation under control."
The others continued to talking, but Wally had zoned out, because, no, this situation was the opposite of "under control." To the others, this was just a fancy hostage situation designed by another baddie. Sure, they were probably concerned for the kid, but they had never met him. And they were probably worried that Robin might have to turn himself over to a villain, but Rob had dealt with worse and been just fine. And if it had been any other kid, Robin would be able to handle it just fine, but Wally knew he would never even get the chance.
Another chapter down, I hope it wasn't too bad. Did I get the characters okay? I wasn't sure how I wanted to have the interactions between Bruce and Gordon go, and so I feel I might have made it too forced or too out of character or just completely off. Any tips on how I can portray the characters' reactions better? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Was it a good idea bringing in the team's reaction to the news like that? Or was it a bad idea for Megan to tell them because she heard it at practice? And what will everyone do now that they know what's going on? What do you want to see next? More of the team? Robin? Batman? A little bit of everything? Let me know, and don't forget to leave a review :)
Special thanks to: sapphire110, soulevans31, DarkMousyRulezAll, HappyGoLucky15, Butterfly Crown (and thanks for reviewing on my other stories as well!), The Awesome God Apollo, Robin Rider, Boo4Moo, 17blanceri, ThePowerOfBooks, IndiaMoore, Hyper-Blossom Z, Red Sky at Morning, Jaddis, amyanime4, Bethisafan77, Gemini Genim, Guest (guest), Mickey's Girl (guest), PenguinLover28 (guest), Turtles18, Anonymous-Nerds-Unite, The Shadow Keeper, Pottergirl3333, IndiaMoore, and jamiefin for the follows, favorites, and the amazing reviews!
Guest (guest): Thanks, I'm glad you liked, hopefully I'm wrong and this chapter is good too. Hey, are you the same Guest who reviewed on The Anniversary?
Mickey's Girl (guest): Thanks again for the review, super sorry for the late update by the way, but I'm sure you guys are already tired of my excuses, so I shall just continue to apologize until I feel I have a valid reason
PenguinLover28 (guest): Thanks for the review, I'm glad you are continuing to enjoy this, and keeping up with the kind reviews! Sounds like a good costume, and the idea of a zombie anime fangirl would be so cool, as if I was a zombie, I would probably be that one. Batgirl would've been a cool costume, but I wanted to go as Robin, more specifically Stephanie Brown. I ended up putting together a Nightwing-ish costume. I had black pants, black gloves, and my black glasses worked as a mask, and then I threw on my Nightwing hoodie. A few people even recognized who I was, so all was well, and thanks for asking about the sob story :)
Turtles18: I feel so bad, I kept forgetting that I wasn't able to PM you and so hadn't put you in the responses, I'm really sorry. Thanks for the reviews, and reminding me to have fun with the story. I'm having fun writing this, even if I'm a little leery about it at times, and I hope you guys are enjoying reading it. And thanks for checking out and reviewing on my other story :)
Okay, I've been getting a pretty good response with this story, but the last chapter's response was just so amazing, it made me so happy, and it came just when I needed it. Thank you guys so much and I hope it continues! When I saw all of the emails, I kept asking myself what I did in the last chapter that you guys liked it so much.
Until time
-TheImaginativeFox
(thanks again, you guys are awesome!)