Chapter Three

Five Hours Earlier

The young team had not heard anything from Rave's kidnapper, and now Areina knew who he was, and knowing about his use of torture, the second generation fire controller was about ready to burn something.

"Hey Areina, it may be a while before we heard anything; you can stay here if you want." Mathen said to his cousin.

"Yea, I just need to go get some stuff from the manor." Areina said.

"No worries, I'll open a boom tube for you." Mathen said as he started typing on the console and soon enough the portal opened and Areina headed into it.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBB

In the Batcave, Bruce was working hard when the boom tube opened up and Areina emerged from it.

"Is Meygan safe?" Bruce asked.

"Haven't heard anything yet, I came to get some stuff, I'm staying at Watchtower until she's rescued." Areina said. "Need to make sure my utility belt is stocked up.

"Alright, take whatever you need." Bruce said as he resumed his work.

Areina headed to the armory and spent about 20 minutes in there then headed into the manor to gather some clothes, since she was still in her Red Bird suit. It wasn't long before she returned with what she came for and signaled her cousin. The 19 year old soon left out after telling her grandfather good bye. Just as the boom tube closed after Areina entered it, Terry came into the cave.

"Any news about her family?" Terry asked.

"All I will say is that she may be gone for a while." Bruce said, never taking his attention off the computer infront of him.

Terry knew that when Areina was ready to tell him, she would contact him, so he didn't push it. The 18 year old then went and got ready to go out as Batman.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Six Hours Later, Watchtower

Areina was getting anxious, so she asked if she could use the training room to 'blow off some steam'. Mathen didn't mind, as they could always fix whatever she broke, if anything. Just as the second generation fire control started some intense stress release, her comm unit beeped to life.

"Yea." Areina said as she activated the speech option.

"Get to a computer up there, you have an anonymous email with an attachement. It may be some news about Meygan, since Stalker knows about Dick's family." Bruce said.

"Sometimes, grandpa, I'll be able to stump you on something." Areina said as she left back out to head to the main computer. When she arrived, she was met by worried faces, since there had been no word.

"I thought you were in the training room?" Vincent asked.

"Well, Bruce just contacted me, and a mental note, I really need to change my password on my email." Areina said as she walked up to the keyboard and started logging into her email.

Soon enough, the 19 year old saw what her grandfather had contacted her about. When she moved to open it, she felt a sense of dread come over her.

If you know Meygan Grayson, then you might want to watch this.

Both Vincent and Mathen were tense, and so was Areina. Billy was in the room, but even though he grew up with Meygan, he didn't have as strong of a relationship as the others. Areina then clicked on the attachment and a video popped up. When the video started rolling, there were two men, both clear enough to see. Areina saw the younger of the two and was about ready to blow up the computer screen.

"Hello Grayson family. I'm sure by now that brat archer has returned and you know that Meygan is captured." Stalker started off.

Everyone watching tensed when they saw Rave chained up with some sort of device on her head, and she was struggling to get free.

"To give you an idea of what this quarter demon is going through, all you have to do is remember what happened to Dick Grayson six months ago. You see, I recorded the torture the famous boy wonder. The device on her head is feeding her audio and video from the two weeks Dick was in my clutches." Drow said.

Mathen knew what happened to his father last year, but even he would want to stop the torture of watching it. Everyone felt the temperature in the room rise, and they didn't know what was going on, until they saw Areina with her fists so tight her knuckles were white.

"This is just the start of her torture, and to make this a bit more interesting; not that I don't enjoy torturing you as well, I'll give you one hint with each video, and maybe you can find her before it's too late." Stalker said. "I may be going a little retro here, but how about a riddle: What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?"

"Well, until the next video. Before you start thinking on the riddle, I wanted to give Areina a special performance." Drow said, and with that, he walked over to Rave, pulled out a knife and slashed it through the air at her body.

Rave then cried out in pain as the blade cut through her Kevlar suit and her skin as well. The last straw was when after Drow and Stalker were out of camera view, everyone saw a few tears fall from under the torture device. The computer screen was soon not only pierced by an arrow, but blow up afterward.

When Mathen and Billy turned to their allies, they saw that both were in fighting stances and Vincent had his bow out.

"They are definatly Red Arrow's kids." Mathen said, knowing that through history, Red Arrow had a temper.

"It's going to take all of us, plus Batman." Areina said, after calming down.

"He's an old man, how can he help?" Billy asked.

"Not Bruce; you see about 3 years ago, Batman resurfaced. A high school kid is now the legendary Dark Knight, well he was in high school when he started." Areina explained as she held her rage back.

"Are you sure about this Areina?" Mathen questioned.

"We don't have a choice, half the league is in a third world country, while Uncle Dick and the rest are on an off world mission and who knows when they will get back. We have to be the ones to do it, but Terry knows that you guys are my family and that you come first. How about we all go to the Batcave and talk about it." Areina advised.

"I thought Bruce was very secretive?" Mathen remarked.

"Terry's still raw when it comes to what Bruce would have done as Batman. It's better to plan there, and besides, we can get some coordination help from the original Dark Knight." Areina said.

Mathen thought for a moment, and looked at Billy and Vincent. "Does he know about any other kids besides us Graysons?"

"Yes, he knows that other protégés had kids and you are all in training." Areina said as she reached up to her comm link. "Bruce, you get all that?"

Soon enough, Areina was nodding and Mathen activated a boom tube. The four heroes then walked into it and it closed behind them.

Time helps a person think. This story was suggested about a month ago, not sure if I'm right on the date, and I've been thinking about it while working on my other stories. Trust me, there is so going to be some action soon, just setting everything up.